


My Only Bleedin' Hope

by MediumAquaMarinePresence



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Comfort, Cults, Delusions, Family Bonding, Fix-It, Gen, Ghosts, I fix season 2, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, The Hargreeves family deals with their shit a little bit, Trauma, ghost dementia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:40:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 38,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25945228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MediumAquaMarinePresence/pseuds/MediumAquaMarinePresence
Summary: Dallas but different. Dallas but smarter. Dallas but together. There was always a choice and this time, this was Five's choice. More of a last resort, sure, but it was still a choice.
Comments: 17
Kudos: 112





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Klaus and Ben go pick up Vanya.
> 
> Note: All chapters with graphic or upsetting content will have expanded warnings, just to be careful :) No warnings apply to this chapter.

_Vanya_

Vanya may not have known who she was or how she got to be in Dallas, but she did know most of Harlan’s hiding places, so she gave him a head start on their hide and seek game. While he was quiet, he was still eight and still predictable, she found him behind some crates in the back and he dashed out to give her a hug. “Let’s head back to the house,” she told him as they held hands and stepped out of the barn. As they made their way back to the house, cutting across the yard, Vanya noticed a car parked out front she’d never seen before. Apprehension rising in her throat she let her and Harlan in through the back door. 

A very chatty and strange man was standing in the house, close to the front door as if he’d only just been invited in. He was tall and slender, wearing tight pants with a shirt that hung off his frame, his long hair falling around his shoulders, sunglasses pushed up onto his head. Sissy stood back from him, a hesitant distance. 

As soon as the stranger saw Vanya his face was overtaken with joy, he made to move toward Vanya but Sissy gave him a disapproving look and stepped between them. “Vanya!” he called, tears in his eyes. “Vanya, oh my god!” 

“You know who I am?” Vanya asked, shocked and hopeful. No one had looked at her and known her in so long, it felt like a miracle 

“Why don’t we all just sit down,” Sissy said, eyeing the stranger with open suspicion. The man finally eased his way around her to approach Vanya, and she let him, let him rush over to her and wrap his arms and pull her to his bony chest. She’d begun to think she was alone, no one was looking for her, but here there was a strange man desperate to give her a hug. 

“Oh Vanya,” he sighed, pressing his lips to her hair. 

“You know me?” she asked. 

“What?” The man pushed himself back, holding her at arm’s length, looking at her with naked concern. “What do you- of course I know you, what are you talking about?” 

“Let’s all sit down at the table,” Sissy said, “and we can talk about it.” The man seemed reluctant to let Vanya go, but they all moved to the kitchen table, Sissy positioning herself to sit between the man and Vanya. “So, why don’t you tell us who you are and how _exactly_ it is you know Vanya.” The man blinked in confusion at the both of them, mouth popping open. 

“Vanya?” he asked. “You- you don’t… remember me?” 

“I’m sorry,” she hurried to say, because he looked so hurt by all of this. “There was an accident, I- I lost my memories. I don’t know who anyone is, I don’t even know who I am.” The man blinked, taking it all in, before giving her a gentle smile. 

“I’m your brother,” he told her. “Come on, I’m Klaus. Don’t- don’t you remember me?” 

“Klaus? Brother?” she repeated. 

“You two don’t look too alike,” Sissy said, eyeing the stranger. Klaus glanced at her. 

“Adopted,” he amended. “Adopted brother.” 

“And how come it’s taken all this time for you to track her down?” 

“I just got back to Dallas,” Klaus told them. “I left Dallas like two years ago, I only just got back. And I saw the ad in the paper and I knew I just had to come out here. How- how long has this been happening?” 

“About a month,” Sissy answered. 

“Oh,” he sighed, so sadly. “Oh Vanya, that must’ve been so scary.” 

“Do you have any ID?” Sissy asked, eyes narrowed. The man laughed. 

“No, I don’t,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair, his sunglasses getting knocked off and he made a noise of surprise before leaning down to pick them up. “I- I’m not really sure what you’re looking for here, but that’s my sister.” 

“Vanya, do you know this man? Do you remember him at all?” Sissy looked openly suspicious now with the way her eyes flitted between Vanya and Klaus. 

“I’m sorry, but I don’t.” The man seemed a little disappointed for a moment, his shoulders sagging, before he heaved a sigh. 

“Look, if I could forget me I would too, don’t worry about it,” he told her. 

“Vanya I know you,” Sissy told her firmly, “you wouldn’t associate with _this sort_ of person.” Vanya felt a little offended on the stranger’s behalf, he seemed odd but harmless, but he only allowed himself a brief look of annoyance. 

“Look,” he said. “Look. I get it. I show up out of nowhere, she doesn’t recognize me, I don’t look anything like her, all while you’re home alone with a kid. I get it.” He turned that kind look to Sissy. “Why don’t I give you two some time to breathe, huh? You can take it all in, think it over, and I’ll come back when your husband is home and we can talk about it. How does that sound, huh?” This stranger was charming, she’d give him that. 

“You come back around six, then,” Sissy told him. The man smiled at her. 

“Sure, I’ll be back around six,” he said, getting to his feet. “Vanya? Hug for the road?” Vanya was starting to like him, so she did, she stood and stepped around Sissy to let him pull her once more to his chest. He seemed so hesitant to leave, he held her hand as he edged toward the door. “I’ll be back,” he assured her, looking at her with kind, big eyes. “I promise.” 

“Ok,” she said, he seemed sweet and sincere but Sissy wasn’t sure, and the housewife quickly shut and locked the door after he was gone. 

“I don’t trust that man,” she announced. “He’s some sort of con artist, I’m sure of it. And I don’t want that _sort_ of person around Harlan.” Vanya wasn’t sure what had set Sissy so against the man, but she trusted Sissy. Still, though, if Sissy approved or not didn’t exactly decide if this man was her brother. 

* * *

_Klaus_

“All right, thoughts on how to straighten this up,” Klaus muttered, looking at himself in the mirror. “Ben?” 

“Honestly, I have no idea,” his brother replied, perched on a cushion behind him. “You washed, maybe shave? Pull your hair back?” Klaus turned back to the full length mirror, his back to Ben in his bedroom at the mansion. They’d cleaned up a little, uncovering the furniture they wanted to use, but it was only a matter of time until the house was full again and they weren’t alone. 

“Let’s see…” Klaus pulled his hair away from his face, he didn’t like it. “More presentable?” Ben didn’t seem convinced. “Damnit.” 

“Let’s work on clothes,” his brother offered, getting up and moving over to the closet. “Do you own a tie? Maybe a tie?” 

“No I don’t own a tie,” Klaus grumbled, frowning at his reflection. “Goddamnit. Five really had to pick the 60s, huh?” 

“To be fair, we might have more problems if we went back to a time that had internet,” Ben offered. “Maybe she’s not homophobic, maybe she just thinks you look crazy and are covered in tattoos and absolutely some sort of fraud.” Klaus sighed, giving one last glance at himself before turning and flopping down on the mattress that passed for his bed. Some things never changed, he was decades away from anything he knew, more money at his fingertips than he’d ever thought possible, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to have a bed. 

“Damnit, how are we gonna get her out of there,” Klaus whined. “I don’t have ID. Then again, neither does she. I wish we had a picture of us together, that would be good, but no. I guess I’ll just have to look my best and act my best and we’ll see how far we get.” 

“If Vanya is here, maybe everyone else is?’ Ben tried. 

“It’s possible,” Klaus admitted. “But it’s also possible it’s just us.” His hand came up to his mouth, he worried his thumbnail almost without realizing it. God he wanted a drink, but he always wanted a drink, and he’d learned to just hang on for a minute and it would pass. “Let’s go buy a tie then.” At least Ben had stopped his nagging, they’d had a little run-in over him going to see Dave but they’d stopped arguing. He wanted to ask when Ben had gone from “I know this is important to you” to “your little Vietnam fling”, but he knew that answer was probably in the horrible shit that had happened since 1960, which would just start more arguments. 

Thankfully there was money. Klaus had money now, the amount of which back in 2019 would have been lethal. But now it meant he could hop his butt in his car and drive him and his brother Ben into town to pick up a tie. 

He got talked into a jacket as well, but drew the line at the pants, nothing was tight enough in this decade and you had to draw the line somewhere. 

Ben was quiet on the drive out. He wasn’t reading, which was honestly what Klaus expected at this point, he was looking out the window and thinking. “Klaus,” he said softly, when they were maybe a mile out, “can I ask you for a favor?” Klaus sighed, it had been nothing but favor after favor since he’d been sober, but this was Ben. 

“What?” 

“I know she doesn’t remember us, but I wanna say hi to her. Can you let her know I’m here? When you think she’ll believe you.” And that was the wrong thing to say, Ben knew it by the wince he gave at Klaus’ panied look. “Look, I know- I know you went through a long time when they didn’t believe you, but.” 

“I’ll do my best,” he answered. But he’d done his best, he’d done twelve years of his best, of begging and pleading his siblings to listen to him and it had only cemented in their minds what a fuck up liar he was. It had made him want to give up but if he didn’t go through the motions it would be more than he could handle from Ben. So he’d try, even though he wasn’t sure what good it would do. 

They arrived back at the farm a little after six, better to give them some wiggle room. The second car was there, though, which must mean Mr. Farm Man was back home. If the wife hadn’t liked him, the husband certainly wasn’t going to, straight men _really_ did not take well to Klaus existing. He’d had only a little experience with closets, even the great Reginald Hargreeves had only been able to cajole, threaten, and beat so much out of him. But this was to rescue Vanya, so he had to try. 

The wife answered the door, and seemed surprised at his transformation. “Come on in,” she said slowly, standing aside so he could step in. 

“So this is Vanya’s brother,” the husband declared, stepping up to shake Klaus’ hand. Klaus did his best to remember everything Reggie had tried to drill into him about manhood and manliness, he managed the eye contact but the handshake was weak. “Carl Cooper.” 

“A pleasure to meet you,” Klaus said with as friendly a grin as he could manage. “And let me say thank you.” 

“Thank you?” 

“Thank you for taking _such_ good care of my sister.” Stroke the ego, and a paternalistic shit like this was putty in Klaus’ hands. 

“She’s been a delight,” the man replied, just as Vanya came out from what was presumably a bedroom. Vanya, darling sweet sensitive Vanya, looking at him like she really didn’t recognize him. If she was faking Klaus didn’t like it, but he was pretty sure he deserved it. 

“Vanny,” he sighed, but he’d already pushed his luck with all the hugging. She didn’t know him, she shouldn’t want to be hugged by a stranger. To his surprise, however, she bounded over and wrapped her arms around his waist. 

“Hi,” she chirped into his pec. She definitely wasn’t faking it, Vanya hadn’t wanted to hug him in years. It may have been taking advantage but he didn’t care, he was soft and gooey and had very much missed his family. 

“So go on and have a seat,” Carl offered, Klaus tugged Vanya over to the table and sat her down, this time making sure to pick the chair next to her before the farm wife could come over and separate them. 

“Where’d the kid go?” Ben asked, Klaus glanced around at him but he had to stay focused on trying to appear like a sane, straight man. 

“So how did you two find my sister?” Klaus asked. 

“Now that’s a funny story,” Carl said, although he got a disapproving look from his wife in the kitchen. “My wife Sissy accidentally hit her with her car.” 

“You ran over her?” Klaus cried, shaking his head. “Is that what we think the memory stuff is about?” 

“That’s what the doctor says,” Vanya put in. “They say it could still come back, though.” 

“Lord.” Klaus ran a hand over his face. “No other injuries? Just the memory loss?” 

“Nope,” Carl confirmed, while his wife went about serving dinner. Klaus got to his feet to help, but she insisted she had it and he sat back down. With food on the table the wife joined them, across the table from Klaus so she could continue to give him distasteful glances. “So, Klaus, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself.” Ben had given him a few pointers on how not to appear like a fucking psycho, but he was never good at listening. 

“Well I’m a bit of a spiritual advisor,” he started. “I’ve been traveling around for a couple years, I just got back into town a day or two ago. Which is why I wasn’t able to come get you Vanya, really I’m sorry.” Vanya looked up at him, confused. “A whole month with no one? I’m sorry, I wish I’d been here sooner.” 

“You’re here now,” she told him. 

“No one else has uh, come by to see her?” Klaus asked, trying to keep his voice casual as he cut into the baked chicken he’d been served. 

“Who would you have in mind?” the wife asked, eyes narrowing. 

“Probably some of our other siblings,” Klaus admitted, giving the woman a pleasant smile. 

“Big family?” Carl asked. 

“Oh yeah,” Klaus laughed. “There’s a handful of us, but we’re all over the place. I’m not even sure where most of us are at the moment, but hey, now I know where Vanya is, so that’s one down.” She did not believe him. Carl did. 

“Well that sounds mighty interesting.” 

“What do you do?” 

“Well I’m in sales,” Carl told him. Klaus raised his eyebrows. 

“Oh wow,” he murmured, “wow wow wow! That’s impressive. I bet that’s a lot more complicated than people really give it credit for.” And oh yeah he’d struck gold with that one, Carl was off on a tirade about the difficulties and misconceptions of his profession. Klaus didn’t have to do much, all he had to do was keep an open expression, nod along, and prod with an ego massaging question and he kept it up for almost all of dinner. The wife cleared up the table, Klaus was actually allowed to help out with that, as she hadn’t gotten over her suspicions but her husband’s rambling had her worn down. “You know,” Klaus mused once he’d flopped back into his seat at the table. “I consider Beatrice Alredge a close _personal_ friend.” Carl’s greedy eyes widened at the name drop. “And you wanna know something, the Alredges are building a lake house retreat just outside the city. The right word, Carl Cooper, and I don’t see why they wouldn’t look up your company for their shower heads.” 

“Now that is mighty fine of ya,” Carl said with a grin. 

“Do you have a business card I could maybe grab?” 

“Why yes I do.” Carl took a card from the breast pocket of his coat and slid it over the table. 

“Overkill,” Ben told him, but he was grinning. 

“So, I’d like to offer for Vanya to come home with me tonight,” Klaus said. “And if she wants, if you want, Vanya, you can come stay with me while you’re recovering from your head injury.” 

“I don’t know about that,” the wife muttered. Klaus looked at her, really looked at her for a long moment. It was a gamble, but he recognized the look in her eye when she looked at his sister. 

“Mrs. Cooper,” he started gently, “I have a great deal of resources at my disposal. I can help get Vanya the specialists she needs. There might be more the doctors can do for her. And who knows, maybe being around someone who knows her will help with her memory.” He let that stand for a moment. “But this isn’t goodbye,” he continued when he saw her about to protest. “I can tell you two care about Vanya very much, you’ve taken her in and done so much for her. I’m _so_ grateful for that.” He smiled at her. “I can help her.” 

“I just-” Mrs. Cooper sighed. “This is all happening so fast.” Klaus licked his lips, Vanya sat to his left, the woman’s right. 

“Mrs. Cooper, can you do something for me?” 

“Mmm?” 

“I want you to take a look at Vanya’s hands,” he told her, nodding encouragingly. Vanya laid her hands out, palm up, and Mrs. Cooper slid over to have a look at them. “You can tell she hasn’t done hard work, she’s not a farm hand,” he started. 

“I can tell that.” 

“Take a closer look. She’s got calluses on her fingers, doesn’t she?” 

“Mmm.” 

“She got those calluses from playing the violin,” he told her. “Can you see that?” There was a tense moment of silence as the farm wife studied Vanya’s hands. 

“I can,” Mrs. Cooper sighed. “I can, I can see it. You know Vanya.” 

“I do.” 

“Well, she’ll need to say goodbye to Harlan. And I’ll help her pack up.” 

“Yes!” Ben cheered, and Klaus just smiled and tried not to look too smug. They weren’t out of the woods yet. Vanya and Mrs. Cooper left to the bedrooms, leaving Carl and Klaus at the table. Klaus wrote down the address of the mansion as well as the phone number, and after a while the women returned and Klaus got up to leave. Vanya was excited, she grinned up at him as they headed for the door. 

“You take care of her,” Mrs. Cooper warned him. 

“Yes ma’am!” Klaus called back as they stepped out of the house and into the night. The air was cool and refreshing, he regretted he was so completely dressed and couldn’t feel it on his bare skin. He kept his arm around Vanya’s shoulders until he sat her right down in the passenger seat, before hopping into the driver’s side. “Vanya it’s so good to see you again.” 

“So what can you tell me?” she asked as he threw off his tie and jacket and lit up a cigarette. She started hacking, Klaus laughed as they both rolled down their windows and he stared the car. 

“Well you’re not a smoker,” he said, letting his hand hang out the window with the cigarette between his fingers. 

“Clearly,” she coughed. They pulled away from the house and started down the dark dirt road that cut through the corn fields, back toward the city. 

“You play classical music.” 

“Uh-huh.” Klaus glanced at her with a tiny smile. 

“What are you angling for?” he asked. 

“Who- who else is in my life? You said other siblings?” 

“Mmm.” Klaus tried to angle his exhaled smoke out the window. “You’re one of seven.” 

“Tell me about the others. Who’s the oldest?” 

“We’re all the same age. At least, when we started,” Klaus explained. “We were all bought as babies, we were all born at the same time. But let’s see. First we have our brother Luther, then it’s Diego, then Allison, me, Five, Ben, then you.” 

“Five? Is that a… nickname?” Klaus laughed, shaking his head. 

“Vanya, I hate to break it to you, we had a real shithead of a father,” he said. “Let me tell you there’s some stuff you might be happier not remembering.” 

“You said you wished you could. Forget, that is.” 

“Uh-huh.” Klaus narrowed his eyes, easing off the gas. 

“Klaus,” Ben called from the back seat, but he was late on the draw. A ways down the road there was a milk truck, parked with the lights on, but more importantly there was a tiny group of ghosts between them and that milk truck. 

“Vanya,” he said as he stopped the car. 

“What’s going on?” 

“There’s some shady people up there,” he told her. “You can stay here, ok? I’m gonna go see what’s up.” The ghosts overtook the car, he sat very still and very tense while they washed over him like a tide. They were always the same, these were innocent and angry people, no mistaking them: these were commission victims. “Damnit,” he muttered, “why now?”

“Send me to go take care of it,” Ben urged. “You need to stay here and keep her safe.” Klaus glanced at Vanya, she was genuinely concerned. 

“What’s going on?” she asked. 

“Being part of this family,” he answered, “is kind of… dangerous. There’s usually people trying to kill us.” 

“Why?” 

“Oh Vanya,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Give me a minute and I’ll explain everything.” A man in a milkman outfit had gotten out of the truck, this was not going to be pretty. “Stay here, everything is going to be fine.” 

“Ok.” He tried to give her a reassuring grin. He maybe succeeded. Stepping out of the car, Ben stood beside him. 

“Say, Bentacles, why don’t you go on and take some of our new friends on a little excursion.” 

“Don’t mind if I do.” It was a little risky, to keep the ghosts physical but not visible, they worked much better as threats and deterrents but he couldn’t let Vanya see them and get all freaked out. Thankfully he’d gained a certain degree of control over his powers in the years since 2019, so he leaned against his door and watched as Ben and the screaming, vengeful ghosts surged forward and to the left, where two of the attackers were hiding. He’d finished his cigarette by the time Ben returned, giving a simple nod that it was ok to go. Klaus slipped back into the car and adjusted the mirror, taking in the sight of two new, blond ghosts in the back seat, one on either side of Ben. There had been three, apparently the ghost crew hadn’t done a very good job. 

“Why are people trying to kill us,” Vanya asked, voice trembling as they inched the car past the milk truck. Klaus glanced at Ben, not really knowing what to do, or what to say that would calm her down, not have her jumping out of his car, without lying to her. 

“Ease her into it,” Ben tried. The two blond ghosts said nothing. 

“We’re… different,” Klaus tried. “We’re able to do things most people can’t. It makes people want us dead.” 

“What do you mean do things most people can’t?” Vanya pressed. “Like- like what do you mean? Are- will Sissy and Harlan be ok?” Klaus snorted. 

“I see no love lost for Carl.” 

“Klaus, please.” 

“They’re not after them,” Klaus explained. “The further you get from this little farm, the more safe they’ll be. When we get to the mansion we’ll give them a call, let them know you made it safe, make sure they’re ok, ok?” 

“Ok, I’m really confused, about all of this.” Vanya took a deep breath. “But I’ve also been confused for the last month.” 

“Oh Vanya, I’m sorry,” Klaus sighed. “I didn’t know, I wasn’t in Dallas when you got hurt, I- you don’t deserve to be alone like that.” 

“I’m sorry I can’t remember you,” she told him. “I- I imagine it must be painful..” Klaus giggled. 

“Honestly, it’s probably better for everyone,” he muttered. “Most people who know me would like to be in your shoes.” 

“Klaus,” Ben complained from the back seat. “That’s a pity party dressed up as a joke.” Klaus flicked his hand over his shoulder at his brother. 

“Anyway,” he continued, “you know me now. We’ll have a fun little sleepover tonight, roast some marshmallows, gossip, do each other’s hair, and tomorrow we’ll get it all sorted, ok?” He really hoped she’d say yes. He’d missed her so much. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family reunion!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of ghosts in this chapter, and some references to homophobia.

_Five_

“I’m sorry to come calling so early,” Five said, because the farm couple had been very kind to allow him in like this. They’d offered him a seat at the table while they were eating breakfast but he declined, he wasn’t intending to be there long as he paced around their kitchen. “I just heard my sister was here.” The woman was staring at him openly, the husband seemed suspicious. 

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” the woman asked. Five grimaced. 

“Well, I was in school,” he explained. “Boarding school. But I was called home for a family emergency, and I’ve come to believe my sister Vanya is staying here.” The couple exchanged a look. 

“Well she was,” the man explained, “that is, until your brother came and picked her up just last night.” Five clenched his fist in the pocket of his schoolboy uniform. Damnit. He knew where Luther and Diego were, this had to be some Commission plot. He’d been late, again, too late to prevent his family being hurt. 

“I’m sorry, we’re from a big family, can you tell me which brother exactly picked her up?” The couple was quiet for a long while. 

“That would be your brother Klaus,” the man answered. Oh. _That_ brother. 

“Did he leave an address for where he took her?” 

“You don’t know where he is?” 

“My family is a little scattered at the moment,” Five replied. “The address?” 

* * *

A mansion. A _fucking_ mansion. Well it beat however he’d been getting by in 2019, that was for sure. But whatever he was doing had to be shady. There was no answer at the door, and while that could be typical it could also be a sign of something being very wrong. A glass pane on the door was smashed, it could have been a break in, and Five didn’t have time to fuck around so he jumped right into the foyer, nearly colliding with Vanya. 

“Fantastic,” he said, looking her up and down. She seemed all right, a little startled, a little confused, but intact. “So you’re here, where’s Klaus?” 

“How did you get in?” she asked. “And who are you?” 

“I may not have been the best brother in the world Vanya, but I don’t think I deserve _that_ ,” Five grumbled. He stepped forward and Vanya stepped back, looking a little panicked. “Vanya?” 

“Look, um, I don’t know you,” she said, voice trembling, “and some people tried to kill me last night, so I- wait here, I need to get my brother.” Five laughed, watched her tear off through the mansion. It was an amusing idea, Vanya scared of him, Vanya thinking Klaus could protect her. Well that was fine, he could wait for that, they were all right. He took the time to look around, the mansion hadn’t been lived in recently, all the furniture was still covered in white sheets. Maybe Klaus was squatting here? That would be right up his alley. Five pulled a sheet off a couch, shook it out and sat down, waiting for his family. 

And then the family idiot stumbled out into the main hall of the house, dressed only in tight leather pants and a set of dog tags. “Five!” he cried, bounding over. Five was one step ahead of him, he blinked back before Klaus could get him in a hug, and stepped back and into someone. Blue, glowing arms wrapped around him and for a moment he struggled, before he realized what was happening and he squirmed to turn around and look up into Ben’s face. 

“Ben,” he whispered. 

“Five,” Ben returned. 

“Oh so he gets a hug?” Klaus demanded, leaping over the couch to join in the group hug. “Vanya it’s ok! It’s just Five!” 

“I’m sorry,” he heard, close by to his left, and while he loved his family it was getting a little overwhelming so he blinked away from them. 

“Great, so that’s you three found,” he said, straightening his blazer. “I’ve got Luther and Diego, all we’re missing is Allison.” 

“Oh Five,” Klaus groaned. “You are going to have a _lot_ of apologizing to do when we do find her.” Five frowned as Klaus flopped down on the couch. 

“What do you mean?” he asked. 

“You sent your black sister back to Dallas in the 60s,” Klaus told him. “Hey are you guys hungry?” 

“Hungr- Klaus we need to go,” Five snapped. 

“You know,” Klaus continued, standing and stretching, “I know this great little Mexican place, it’s an absolute dream. If the owner’s in they always give me extra guacamole. Anyway they’re open now, and I’ve been craving menudo.” 

“Menudo,” Five repeated incredulously. Luther constantly ate but Klaus had to be the one who talked about it the most. 

“There’s a lot Vanya hasn’t been caught up on,” Klaus explained, wobbling his way off back from where he’d come, ideally to get dressed but in actuality who really knew. 

“What the hell is he talking about,” Five muttered, more to himself than to Vanya because at any given moment no one, Klaus included, was ever sure what he was talking about. To his surprise, Vanya answered. 

“I- I had an accident, um, about a month ago,” she stammered. “I don’t remember anything.” 

“Anything?” Five asked, eyes narrowing. “How do you know Klaus is your brother, then?” 

“I… don’t,” she said with a shrug. “But he knows me, and he says I’m his sister.” Five inched a little closer to her, looking at her hard. Was she lying? Was this to cope with everything? Or was it a subconscious way of dealing with things? 

“How much did he tell you?” Vanya chuckled. 

“Um, he said a lot of things, but I’m not really sure what it all means,” she replied. Five laughed despite himself. 

“He’s a little crazy,” he said. “Harmless, though. I guess I have a lot to fill you in on.” Klaus returned, dressed in a waistcoat only, with car keys and sunglasses and telling them to get in the car. Ben had de-materialized, it was probably for the best if they were going out in public, but Klaus insisted Ben was sitting in the front and he was driving. Five and Klaus stood by the door to the driver’s side, staring each other down. “Do you even know how to drive?” Five demanded. Klaus stuck out his tongue. 

“I know how to do everything,” he returned, shoving Five out of the way and diving in. Five took the back seat with Vanya, they had a lot of talking to do. 

By the time they got to the restaurant Vanya had been caught up on powers and their childhood. By the time they had ordered and were served she was familiar with all that had befallen Five, that he had been trapped in the apocalypse, an assassin, and then back to 2019. By the time she was poking at her soup, looking at it suspiciously, Five still hadn’t answered her question on what caused the apocalypse. 

“It’s the best you’ll find in the city,” Klaus told her, already digging into his. 

“What’s, um. What’s in it?” Vanya asked. Klaus blinked at her. 

“You’re not vegetarian, are you?” he asked. “It’s just tripe and broth, really. Not much to it.” 

“What’s tripe?” Vanya asked. 

“It’s cow stomach,” Five answered, watching her reaction. Vanya looked up at them, obviously disgusted, then back at her bowl. Klaus started laughing. 

“You lose your memories but remember you’re a picky eater?” he giggled, leaning over and tugging her bowl over to where Ben was sitting, presumably. Five’s guess was confirmed when the spoon was lifted by an unseen hand. “Go order something you want, Ben will finish yours,” Klaus told her with a grin. Vanya looked relieved and wandered off to go find something that more appealed to her. 

“Have you…” Five licked his lips, Klaus’ earlier comment about Allison was festering. “Have you been all right? I know the 60’s aren’t great for…” Klaus licked his lips, watching Vanya but looking tense. 

“Do you know,” he started, voice low, “what happens to people during a bar raid?” 

“Not… in detail.” 

“Well I do.” Klaus swallowed, hard. “Sorry, I know it’s not your fault, you didn’t choose this. It’s just-” he ran his hand over his facial hair, “-it’s just been a while since I talked to someone who knew who I was.” Five felt he ought to be comforting, but it had been a whirlwind fourteen days. 

It had evidently been a lot longer for his brother. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want to put you through any of that.” Klaus looked back at Five and winked. 

“Don’t worry too much,” he said, “my ass has been _just fine_.” He absolutely had _not_ been, but Vanya was coming back and he wanted to end the conversation before she got there. 

“So,” she said, “you were talking about the apocalypse. What causes it?” Five took a deep breath, wondering how much to tell her. The truth might break her, it might cause her to lose control again, it could be damaging. 

“You do,” Klaus told her cheerfully. Five lunged across the table to punch Klaus in the shoulder. 

“You fucking _idiot_ ,” he growled as Klaus collapsed back into giggles. 

“Wait, slow down,” Vanya’s voice was thin. “I… cause the apocalypse?” 

“Oh don’t look so sad,” Klaus told her, still laughing. “It wasn’t _just_ you. We all did. Luther locked you in this like- cell? I don’t know, he locked you up and we should’ve stopped him, we should’ve been nicer to you…” Klaus paused, looking almost a little sad for a moment, before bouncing back. “Also Dad’s fault. He made you suppress your powers, he didn’t give you any training or tools to deal with all your power shit.” 

“What- what do you mean?” Vanya asked, and Five, while he thought he should be handling the explaining, he sort of wanted to see what happened. 

“Well,” Klaus started, sounding thoughtful which wasn’t good. “It’s not really your fault you lost control and blew up the moon and destroyed the earth. I mean, come on I’m not really one to talk here, I haven’t been exactly on top of handling my powers.” 

“I- I’m really not, um, following.” Klaus had gone back to his menudo, and he started gesturing vaguely until he could talk again. 

“When you think about it, we _all_ ended the world, it was just your powers that did the, you know, the _deed_.” Vanya blinked at him, mouth open, before turning to look at Five, distressed. 

“What’s he talking about?” 

“Honestly, he actually might be right on this one,” Five said. “It was your powers, but we could’ve done more.” A server delivered Vanya’s tacos. 

“Nice choice,” Klaus told her, “the tacos here are great.” 

* * *

About a million things happened when Five, Vanya, and Klaus all showed up at Elliott’s. First, Klaus had a bit of a Moment, he went rigid upon stepping through the door and turned to the side, a hand coming up and clamping over his ear out of reflex. Diego rushed down the stairs and grabbed Klaus, saying something and likely only agitating or confusing their brother, but Five trusted Klaus in Diego’s hands more than he trusted even himself to handle whatever was going on. What he was far more interested in was the tense space between Vanya and Luther. 

“Vanya,” Luther stated, staring at her. To Five’s surprise Ben materialized, standing between their sister and Number One. 

“Give her space,” Ben told Luther, taking a protective stance. Luther did as he was told, his face looking confused and hurt but his shoulders sagging, the weight of accepting what was going on, what he’d done, hanging on his posture. 

“Vanya,” he said. 

“She doesn’t know who you are,” Ben told Luther. 

“She lost her memories,” Five added, watching the scene with interest. “Anyway, family drama aside-”

“A woman!” Klaus gasped, lunging away from their little family huddle to where Lila was still seated on the couch. He plopped right down next to her and fumbled to get his wallet out. “Your makeup, oh my god, it’s been so long, take this-” he handed her a fistful of crumpled bills, “and go to the nearest drug store and get me whatever it is you put on your eyes.” 

“What, why can’t you do it?” Lila asked. 

“Is that a serious question?” Klaus asked her, eyebrows raised. “Usually people are asking why I want it. Anyway, off you go.” Klaus stumbled off the couch and dragged Lila up with him, but Five didn’t miss the way his hands were shaking, the way he was twitching. 

Interesting. 

Within a minute Klaus had Lila shoved out the door and was turning back to their family. “What the hell is wrong with you,” Diego demanded, to which Klaus just smiled and shrugged. 

“You and Luther have fun hanging with Vanya, see if you can’t get her memories back,” he said. “Fivesy and I need to have a nice long chat.” His powers were back, that was good, that was useful. That might actually be the key to all this. 

Without waiting for anyone else to react he grabbed Klaus’ wrist and jumped them to the bedroom. 

“What did you hear.” Klaus let out a high giggle, slumping down to sit on the bed. 

“We are so fucked,” he muttered. “First of all that woman, Five, what on Earth is she doing here?” 

“Lila? What do you know?” Klaus’ hands were shaking, Five knew he probably shouldn’t push too much, but he had to know. 

“Handler’s daughter? What does that even mean?’ Klaus groaned. “She’s a spy and using poor Diego.” And oh yeah, that was some good information. 

“What else can you get me?” Five asked. “What else do the ghosts know?” Klaus shook his head, eyes wide, he was sliding sideways out of this conversation at an alarming rate. He’d be running for drugs or alcohol soon, Five had to get what he could before that happened. 

“Can- can Ben-” 

“Klaus I need you to focus, all right?” 

“I-” Five’s heart sank as Klaus’ hands came up to cover his ears, this was going terribly. 

“Please focus,” Five growled. “This is important. Get me all the information you can then you can go OD or whatever it is you want to do.” 

“I’m sober!” Klaus cried. “Three years, Five, I’m not throwing that away just so you can sate your curiosity!” 

“If I get Ben can you promise to work with me on this?” he asked. Klaus gave a desperate little nod, how quickly his brother could devolve into such a mess still astounded him, but he trusted him to sit there while he stepped out of the bedroom to call Ben in. The ghost joined him in standing and staring down at Klaus, who was hugging himself and rocking back and forth. 

“Jesus,” Ben muttered. 

“Can you hear the ghosts too?” Five asked, but he was ignored. Ben crouched down in front of Klaus, gently laying his hands on his knees and trying to get his attention. Only when Klaus finally focused on Ben did he talk. 

“Klaus,” he said firmly. “It’s ok. I’m right here. You’re not alone.” Klaus nodded. “There’s ghosts here?” Another nod. “Bad ones?” A nod. “Ok. Tell them to wait their turn, all right? See if they’ll listen to that.” 

“Great, can you handle this then? I need whatever information you can get me about the commission, the apocalypse, whatever you can get.” Five didn’t wait for either of them to respond, this was going to be an elongated process so he’d leave them to it. There were other things to do. 

When he stepped back to the rest of the apartment, where he saw Diego, Vanya, and Luther all hanging out on the couch, he considered their next steps. “I think,” he announced, “it’s time to get the gang back together. Who wants to go get Allison with me?” 

* * *

_Diego_

Diego had told Elliott to tell Klaus and Ben they would be back soon, he didn’t really trust the man but neither did he trust that Lila was going to come back. “I brought you for a reason,” Diego muttered at Vanya as they perused the aisles. 

“And what’s that?” she asked. 

“Help me find what makeup he wants,” he told her. “He liked what Lila had on her eyes and stuff.” 

“I’m sorry, I don’t really know much about makeup,” she admitted, giving a shrug. A store employee approached them, a man in the makeup section was probably ruffling some feathers here in 1963. 

“Can I help you?” she asked, plastic smile on her face. 

“Yeah, uh, I need something for my girlfriend,” Diego told her. “Like, do you have anything black for… eyes.” Vanya laughed at the employee’s politely perplexed expression. 

“Are you thinking of maybe some eyeliner? Or eyeshadow?” 

“Both of those, yes,” Diego told her. Vanya followed along, being a good sport as the sales associate took him through the different options. He didn’t know at all what he was doing but his sister eventually piped up and pointed at a couple things she thought looked like what Lila had been wearing. Once they got what they needed they started walking back to Elliott’s place. “How long have you been here?” Diego asked, grabbing her shoulder so they could switch sides and he could walk between her and the street. 

“Um, it’s been about a month,” Vanya answered. “And you?” 

“Seventy five days.” 

“Your hair did that in seventy five days or was it like that before?” Diego side eyed her. 

“You wanna say something about it?” he asked. Vanya grinned and shrugged. “So you really can’t remember anything?” 

“No, nothing. I had kinda hoped seeing people who knew me would help, but…” Diego frowned, she seemed to really be beating herself up over this.

“Don’t worry about it,” he muttered. “There’s probably stuff you’re better off forgetting anyway.” Vanya snorted. 

“Klaus said that too.” 

“Yeah, well, he would.” Diego ran a hand through his hair. “Just take your time, ok? It’ll happen.” 

“Thanks.” When they got back Elliott was making some sort of horrible looking food. Diego set the bag of makeup down on the table and retreated to the couch, hoping he wouldn’t be asked to eat whatever it was that was going on. 

“Hope you’re not hungry,” he said. 

“Oh, Klaus took us to get menudo.” Diego raised his eyebrows at Vanya as she joined him on the couch. 

“You ate menudo?” he asked. She seemed a little embarrassed. 

“Am I really that picky of an eater?’ 

“Always have been,” Diego told her, grinning. “You always stayed at the table after everyone was gone, cause you wouldn’t eat half of what we were served. Oatmeal you hate, fish you hate, actually all seafood you hate.” Diego thought for a minute. “Pickles too, olives, mushrooms, bamboo, you hate tofu, you hate curry… do you know what it’s like to try and order a pizza with you?” 

“So I didn’t have menudo,” she said, “I wouldn’t eat it and he let me get tacos.” Diego snorted. 

“That sounds about right.” 

“What else can you tell me about myself?” she asked, leaning in. 

“Depends, what did Klaus tell you?” 

“A lot of weird stuff.” 

“Sounds about right.” 

“He said I have terrible taste in men.” 

“That asshole.” 

“I don’t?” 

“No, you do, it’s just a shitty thing to say. Bet he thought it was real funny, too.” Diego shook his head. “Let me think, ok? Did you have anything specific?” Vanya shrugged, she’d spent the night with Klaus so she was probably more confused than when she lost her memories. “Do you remember sneaking out to eat doughnuts?” he asked, knowing she would shake her head no. “We used to, when we were young. Before Five left. There was a doughnut place a couple miles from the Academy, called Griddy’s. We’d all sneak out our windows and walk there.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah, and we never had any control, we’d eat until we made ourselves sick. Then walk home in time to not be missed.” 

“How old were we?” 

“I guess around ten when we first did it. We didn’t do it after Five left.” Vanya nodded, as if she understood, as if she thought they were all too sad to go out without him. “Dad was… stricter after that. It was harder to sneak out.” 

“I mean, you still did, though, right?” Diego shrugged. 

“Allison and Klaus snuck out, they went to parties, you know, drinking, stuff like that. Allison got away with it more. I snuck out a little too, when we were teens.” She looked curious, but he’d never told her this. 

“Why did you sneak out?” 

“I was… doing vigilante shit,” he grumbled. 

“Oh.” Vanya took a moment to take that in. “What are Klaus and Ben doing?” 

“Five said he had him getting information.” 

“How?” 

“Ghosts, probably.” Diego frowned, then got to his feet to find Elliott in the kitchen. “Hey, Elliott, do you have any alcohol here?” 

“Uh, yeah, a couple bottles in the fridge.” 

“I’ll pay you back but I’m gonna dump it, ok?” Elliott seemed like he might say no so Diego moved to the fridge and started taking out the bottles, there was one of whiskey and one of vodka as well as a bottle of wine. Vanya joined him in the kitchen, he handed her a bottle. “Dump it.” 

“Why?” she asked, but she did as he asked. 

“Not good for anyone to have it around,” Diego answered, Klaus was maybe sober but his addiction was his business. 

“Do you think Luther and Five are all right?” 

“They’ll be fine.” Booze taken care of, Diego was at a loss for what to talk about. He’d given some thought to how he would talk to Vanya, when they were reunited, but most of that hinged on her having an intact brain. Diego didn’t do well without rehearsing. “So, um, what all did Klaus and Five tell you?” 

“Um, let’s see… we went over childhood, powers, apocalypse.” Vanya licked her lips. “He said some things, some weird things, and he wouldn’t… elaborate.” Well that wasn’t good. 

“Let’s go sit down,” Diego told her, whatever Klaus had said it would be hard to mop up, but he could try. Once they were back on the couch Vanya took a moment to compose herself, to try and figure out her words. Diego let her. 

“Why don’t we get along, Diego?” Diego swallowed, hard, and clenched his jaw. The quiet hung heavy between, like the humid canopy of a rainforest. 

“How do you figure that?” 

“Klaus said we went years without speaking.” 

“There was more to it than us not getting along.” 

“But we didn’t. Get along, that is.” Diego shook his head. “Why?” 

“Lots of reasons. Do you really want to get into it?” Vanya nodded. Diego licked his lips, he glanced around, wondering if Elliott was listening in. “Part of it was this book you wrote,” he began. “It- it gave up a lot of personal details of our childhood. Details that weren’t yours to give.” 

“Oh.” 

“I mean, I- you had your reasons. You were always ignored, you were neglected, growing up.” 

“So, what, I did it for attention?” Vanya asked. Diego shrugged. 

“I don’t know,” he said, and that was honesty. “I really don’t know if it was for attention or if you were bitter that we- that Dad- that the whole Academy was being praised, and you wanted people to know the seedy underbelly.” 

“I can’t imagine it was the nicest thing I could’ve done.” Diego laughed. Switching sides on the argument about the book with Vanya herself was not something he had predicted, but here they were. Go figure. “If it means anything, Diego, I’m sorry.” 

“It does, actually,” he told her. “It- I’m sorry, too. You don’t remember it but I was kind of awful to you, after the book.” The quiet after their apologies was almost nice, it was soft like a blanket and something they shared. “You’ll remember eventually what an asshole I was,” he told her. It didn’t feel right, having her accept his apology when she couldn’t even remember what he’d done. 

“But when I do,” she said, “I’ll also remember you apologizing.” Diego didn’t know what to say to that, he didn’t deserve that kindness but he had it and he wasn’t about to send it back. She’d take it back soon enough. “Who was that woman, by the way?” 

“What, Lila?” Diego shrugged. “We were locked up in a sanatorium together, she sort of just followed me.” 

“Do you like her?” 

“I mean… I thought I did,” he admitted. “But you know what I really think? I think I was a little lonely and she reminded me of Klaus. Just a little. And being around her made me feel like I had a little bit of home.” Vanya smiled at him and he looked away. “But if you tell him I said that I’ll kill you.” 

The door to the bedroom opened before she could say anything and Klaus stumbled out, wide eyed and shaking. Diego got up and moved toward him, slowly, cautiously so as not to startle him, but Elliott was closer and Klaus walked straight into him. Both Elliott and Klaus shrieked, although Diego’s brother was the one who fell over in surprise. Diego couldn’t help but laugh as he hauled Klaus to his feet. 

“Really?” he asked. 

“I thought he was a ghost, oh my god,” Klaus said breathlessly, hands coming up to clutch at Diego’s biceps. Despite his current state he looked… healthy. Relatively. He was still stupid skinny but he’d filled out in ways that didn’t make Diego fear he’d drop dead at any moment, his eyes were clear, his hair was clean and cared for, same with his facial hair. 

On the other hand he was still shivering and looking a little manic in the eyes. 

“Come on, let’s sit down,” Diego told him, voice soft but firm as he grabbed Klaus’ upper arm and dragged him to the couch. Klaus followed, he didn’t fight him and they sat back down together, Klaus pressed up against Diego’s side and tucked under his arm. “So, I hear you started a cult.” Klaus snorted. 

“If you knew the truth, you’d wish I started a cult,” he muttered. “I missed you.” 

“Yeah, man.” 

“How long you been here?” 

“Couple months.” Klaus pushed himself back to stare at Diego, eyes wide. “Why, how long you been here?” 

“Three years.” Diego stared, dumbstruck, he saw the tears in Klaus’ eyes before he felt them on his own cheeks. 

“Three _years_?” Diego whispered. At the desperate little bobble of Klaus’ head he pulled his brother to his chest and held on tight, buttoning the hatches as they were wracked by a storm of emotions. There wasn’t much to do but cling to each other until the sobbing subsided. 

“I’m sober though, three years, if it counts,” Klaus was blubbering. “And I can use my powers, and I wasn’t _alone_ alone, there was Ben.” That was a relief, that he wasn’t by himself, but still. Diego knew who Klaus was, he knew 1960 was not an ideal time to be. 

“Are you ok, though?” he asked. Klaus licked his lips, dabbing at his eyes with the heel of his hand. 

“Mostly,” he giggled. “Mostly.” 

“Well take some deep breaths, all right? You gotta stop crying.” 

“You can’t tell me what to do, you’re not my real dad,” Klaus complained, though he was still wiping at his face. Vanya had caught on to what Diego was thinking and had gotten up to grab the shopping bag of makeup, and tossed it to Diego. 

“We got you a present,” he told Klaus with a grin, whose entire face lit up at the prospect. 

“You guys are the best.” 

* * *

_Five_

Family acquired? Check. Give them enough time to socialize and give out hugs? Check. Keep Klaus sober? Check. “All right, we need to focus,” Five told them, hands in his pockets. “We have a few leads on this apocalypse business,” he started, “such as Dad being on the Grassy Knoll the day Kennedy is shot.” Ben shook his head. “Ben? You have something to say?” There had been chatting before, no one really listened to Five, but the prospect of hearing Ben’s thoughts had everyone going quiet, including Diego who had been readying himself to explain why they probably had to kill Reginald Hargreeves. 

“Well I don’t know,” Ben shot. “You told Klaus to gather intel, but you won’t listen to it unless I say it.” 

“We don’t really have time for old grudges.” 

“Klaus and I will explain what we found,” Ben said slowly, “if you promise to do what we say.” Five narrowed his eyes, what game were his brothers playing at? What dead had they been able to talk to? What did they know? At any rate, what Klaus and Ben had was a far better lead than this Reginald shit. 

“All right, Ben, the floor is yours.” Ben didn’t move, he was seated cross legged in his own chair, and seemed a bit nervous when all eyes were on him. For a moment nothing happened, but Ben looked to Klaus who gave him an encouraging nod. 

“We, um, Klaus and I talked to a lot of people,” he explained. “I- I’m not really sure where to begin.” 

“Let’s start off with the kinds of ghosts we talked to,” Klaus offered. “So, um, some of you actually time traveled from 2019 with ghosts. Actually, more realistically, Five, you traveled with a ghost. You’ve actually _been_ traveling with a ghost, since coming back to 1963.” Five remembered why he didn’t like Klaus or his stupid powers. You always prepared yourself to hear something, you could be the hardest, meanest assassin with a stomach of steel, and still he could casually say something so deeply disturbing. 

“I’ve killed a lot of people, Klaus, you’ll have to narrow it down.” 

“Oh, no, no no no, I got rid of those ages ago,” Klaus laughed. “No, this is one you _didn’t_ kill, so much as he died on your behalf.” 

“Great.” Klaus looked at Ben, nervous. 

“So, um, Klaus doesn’t want to make this ghost… visible,” Ben started again. 

“Well that’s too bad, because whoever this ghost is we need to-” 

"It’s Hazel,” Klaus blurted out. “Please, Five, you already let him torture me, don’t- don’t make me manifest him.” The whole room went silent. Poor Vanya was so lost, but come to think of it, everyone was a little lost at that, if Five was being honest with himself. 

Klaus had said something about that, hadn’t he? It was days ago at this point, years for Klaus though. He’d said hostage. He hadn’t said torture. The tension in the room was palpable, everyone was waiting for Five to make a move. Diego would probably knife him if he pushed this any further than he already had, he didn’t like to think how close this information may have come to costing them Klaus’ sobriety. 

“All right,” he relented. “All right. Just tell me what he says.” 

“So Hazel has some thoughts and opinions on your interpretation of the Frankel Footage,” Ben started. “He says you’ve focused on the wrong part.” 

“He also says you have daddy issues,” Klaus put in. Five took a deep breath. It was hard to trust Klaus, he didn’t understand his brother’s motivations, his thoughts or feelings, he didn’t understand what he did or why he did it, or really how to motivate him properly. Klaus was an unknown. Ben, however, was as sturdy and stable as any of them got. He could manage to believe and listen if it was Ben. 

“So what part of the footage were we supposed to focus on?” he asked. 

“The audio,” Ben informed him. “He says you should have paid attention to the audio.” 

“Hey no, I watched it too, there’s nothing out of the ordinary,” Diego protested. 

“Well maybe you missed something,” Allison retorted. 

“Does Hazel have anything else to say?” Five asked over the noise of the ensuing argument. 

“A lot,” Ben called back, but they had to wait for everyone to calm down to continue. “He says we know the timeline, we know what’s supposed to happen. There’s something in the footage that’s wrong, and it’s in the audio.” 

“So is Hazel saying Dad isn’t involved?” Ben and Klaus exchanged a look. 

“Dad isn’t Dad,” Ben explained. “He’s Reginald Hargreeves and if he is involved, he’s playing a role he played in the undamaged timeline.” 

“But he’ll know what’s going on,” Diego insisted, “he’s in the footage-” 

“We need to restore the undamaged timeline,” Ben cut him off. “Diego, Kennedy dies.” 

“What good is coming back in time if we can’t prevent a tragedy?” Diego cried, leaping to his feet. “What’s the point? What’s the point of our powers, our time travel, if- if we-” When Diego looked directly into Ben’s eyes they all knew. Five should’ve left him in the nuthouse, Diego needed some _serious_ help. 

“We can’t afford to change anything,” Five told him. “I mean, so far we’ve already changed plenty.” 

“You mean like starting a cult?” Ben snapped, and Klaus tipped his head back to laugh humorlessly. Five narrowed his eyes. He had his suspicions, but either his hypothesis was wrong, or it was far more twisted than initially surmised. 

“Where is your cult, Klaus?” he asked. “You know where they are?” Klaus shrugged. 

“They’re around.” 

“Klaus hasn’t altered the timeline,” Five announced. “He’s been here for years, as has Allison. Neither of them have been attacked by the Commission.” 

“How do you know?” 

“You’re what we call an easy day at work,” Five told him, beginning to pace as he relaxed into a lecture. “You spend all day every day having millions of strangers touch you, and they all wear the same clothes. I wouldn’t have to even try.” 

“Fair point,” Klaus grinned. “So does that prove I haven’t done anything to alter the timeline we want, or I haven’t done anything to alter the timeline where the world ends in ten days?” 

“The commission would want to preserve the timeline where the world ends,” Five reasoned. “You said you were attacked last night, that must mean we’re on the right path.” 

“What does any of this mean?” Vanya asked. “I- how are we even supposed to stop the end of the world?” 

“I still think we need to talk to Dad,” Diego put in. “He knows something, he’s standing on the-” 

“Diego whoever talks to Dad erases themselves from existence,” Ben sighed. “Dad isn’t Dad. He’s a man named Reginald, he hates children and does not want any, and whoever reveals themselves to him as his child is going to erase themselves from the Umbrella Academy.” A heavy silence descended on the group, everyone taking that in by themselves. 

“So you should do it,” Klaus said slowly. “Ben, if you reveal yourself to him, and then he doesn’t adopt you, then…” 

“Our births are a temporal fact,” Five mused. “There is no timeline where we’re not born. It’s not like we could accidentally convince our parents not to fuck. Any one of us could erase ourselves from the Umbrella Academy.” 

“You could too,” Ben told Klaus. “Then he wouldn’t have- you wouldn’t have-” Klaus nodded slowly, very slowly, his eyes glazing over with greed. 

“Stop it,” Diego growled at him. “Both of you, stop it. No one is erasing themselves from the Umbrella Academy.” 

“And why the fuck not?” Klaus demanded, looking almost offended. “So I have to have a shitty childhood to keep the precious timeline intact?” 

“We all had a shitty childhood,” Five told him, “and yes. We need all of us here, Klaus. If you erase yourself we’re all dead. If anyone gets erased, we’re all dead.” There was a menacing glint in Klaus’ eye when he looked up at him. “This isn’t a build your own sundae bar, you idiots. This is the _timeline_. We can’t mix and match what parts we want.” That had them all sulking, Five ran a hand through his hair. Their emotions were a mystery to him, but he needed them to focus. “Look. It has to be us. There’s no other explanation.” 

“I think we should stick together,” Diego announced. “Last time, we were all over the place. We need to have each other’s backs.” 

“What, we all stay here?” Allison asked, looking skeptical. Five remained quiet, he wanted to watch a little more, see if he could get any sort of confirmation on his theories from his siblings. 

“I agree we should stick together, but there’s only one bed,” Luther pointed out. 

“Klaus has a mansion,” Vanya suggested. “What if we go there?” And that was it, that was the moment, Five studied Klaus and Ben as the proposal was made. To his credit the Seance showed very little, the corner of his lip curled into a half snarl and his head jerked to the side, while Ben looked up at the sky in clear exasperation. Klaus did not look at Ben. Klaus did not look ashamed. Klaus didn’t have an ounce of shame in his body but Klaus looked sad then, he looked like a tragedy were unfolding before him and he couldn’t stop it. 

“It’s safest there,” Five declared. 

“Really, Five?” Ben demanded. 

“Yes, really,” Five answered him pleasantly. “Klaus, do you want to share with us who your cult is?” Klaus shrugged. 

“Just some people who _really_ like to spend time around me,” he said. Five nodded, that was as good as proof. 

“Let’s get going.” 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The truth about cults and ghosts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the most gory chapter, so my apologies if it squicks you out. I'll try and mark the exact part it is, so you can skim through ad still get the gist.
> 
> Sorry if this feels like re-treading old ground from season 1, I just felt like there could have been more continuity between the seasons.

_Five cont._  
The entire Umbrella Academy stood outside the Children of Destiny’s (or whatever the dumb name Klaus had given them was) cult compound. Well it was more an estate, with grounds extending far beyond the main house. Klaus refused to lead them to the front door, standing in the gravel drive and staring at the mansion, where they could see lights on and figures moving. “Look,” he started, fidgeting and casting his gaze around. “Look. They’re harmless, ok? So long as you don’t tell them what they are.” 

“What are you talking about,” Luther grumbled. 

“Is your cult violent?” Vanya asked. Klaus reached out and draped an arm over her shoulders, drawing her close. 

“No,” he said. “No. They’re just…” There was no more explanation, Klaus led them to the front doors, letting go of Vanya and pressing his palms flat to the wood. Ben was there, Ben looked frustrated. “Just… I’m sorry,” was all they got before Klaus pushed the doors open and they were inundated in people, diverse people: different ages, races, genders, all of them dressed in blue and pushing to run their hands over Klaus. Klaus walked through them like a sea, arms outstretched, giving them gentle blessings on the tops of their heads, allowing them to claw and paw at him. 

“This is weird,” Allison said. Vanya looked scared, Five thought someone ought to do something about it when Diego moved closer to her, pulling her to his side and taking the same tiny, shuffling steps they all did in order to follow in Klaus’ wake. Five couldn’t wait any longer, he was too curious, he pushed past his siblings to grab one of the people following Klaus, turn the man around and stare at him. He seemed so normal. 

“Are you here for the prophet?” the man asked. 

“What’s your name?” Five asked, not letting go of the man’s arm. 

“Keechie.” Five gripped harder and harder, the man just frowning and staring at him. “Are you here for the prophet?” he repeated. 

“This is sick,” Allison choked out. “Oh my God, Klaus, what did you do.” 

“What’s going on?” Luther asked, the last horse through the gate as Klaus turned back to them. Five was still squeezing the man’s arm, harder and harder, one of them was bound to give and if it was his fingers that was the price of being wrong. 

“They’re dead,” Five answered as his fingers finally sunk into the nothingness of the ghost’s fake body. 

“Who’s dead?” the ghost asked with a laugh, not noticing he no longer had a corporeal elbow. “We aren’t dead, we are reborn in the prophet! Many of us may have given up old lives to follow him, but that does not mean we’re dead!” 

“What’s going on,” Vanya whimpered, clutching at Diego. 

“Just relax,” Klaus told them, sounding tired. He clapped his hands to get the attention of the cult. “These are my siblings. Everyone say hi!” Luther gave a little wave at the cult, the cult said nothing to them. “We’re going to my room. Please don’t bother us. And don’t forget to do some yoga and meditation, ok?” 

“Whatever you say, Prophet.” Klaus sneered at them, the cult backed away from him but never gave him privacy, always staring at him. Klaus turned away from them and led his siblings through the mansion, toward the back to where his room was, presumably, behind iron gates with glass panes. The cult did not follow, though they did step after them, a few craning their necks to watch until the gates were closed. The room itself was large, with glass doors opening onto the backyard at one end, a fireplace, a bookshelf, and the floor was absolutely littered with rugs and blankets and cushions. No bed, though, but that was hardly a surprise. 

“Have a seat,” Klaus muttered, letting himself collapse dramatically down onto a pile of cushions. 

“What the fuck is going on,” Diego growled, Vanya still clung to him and Klaus looked at him with such fatigue answering him looked as if it would cost the last bit of his strength. No one was sitting, though, no one had made themselves at home, everyone was tense and ready to run. 

“They’re harmless,” he said eventually. “I’ll tell you what happened, but you should sit down.” 

“Did you kill them?” Allison asked. “Did you kill your cult or did they kill themselves or-” 

“What are you talking about?” Ben asked, materializing next to Klaus. “They’re not dead.” In that moment Klaus looked old and tired and pained. 

“Ben what’s going on?” Five asked. “You can’t possibly think those aren’t ghosts out there.” Ben rolled his eyes. 

“You all may be fooled by his lies, but I’m not,” he insisted. “They’re real people. All of them walked away from bright futures to follow this idiot around.” Five shook his head, staring down his dead brother. Ben was supposed to be stable, but Five had put his hand through one of those cult members. He knew that as much faith as he put in Ben, he had to trust what he could touch. Or, rather, what he couldn’t touch. Klaus raised a trembling hand, his slender fingers glowing blue for a moment and Ben vanished. 

“How does Ben not know,” Five muttered, starting to pace. 

“I can explain it all, just sit down and listen,” Klaus insisted. “I didn’t kill anyone, ok?” No one moved. No one trusted Klaus, everyone trusted Ben, but Five had felt the unreality of a ghost under his fingers. Besides, Klaus knew way more than he’d already said, him and Ben both, and Five couldn’t risk the group fracturing because of this cult ghost bullshit. 

He sat down next to Klaus. 

“Start from the beginning,” he told him, voice low. Klaus nodded. 

“Right.” A deep breath. “I landed here in 1960. With Ben. And it was generally… not great.” Klaus looked up at their remaining siblings, at Luther, Allison, Diego, Vanya, at the looks of distrust they were giving him. “Look I don’t know how much history you guys know, but I’m a little too-” Klaus waved a hand to indicate himself, “-to live in 1960.” 

“Get to the cult,” Diego spat. 

“So I was pretty sure if I got caught by the cops again I’d get killed,” Klaus continued, “when I met someone. Her name was Beatrice Alredge, some rich old heiress with too much time and money on her hands. She wanted what they usually want, some attention, to pretend a younger man is genuinely interested in them, they want to get fucked properly by someone who takes direction. They all do.” Klaus pulled out a cigarette and lighter, taking a couple tries to get it between his lips and lit. “So she found out about my powers, and we hatched this plan. I’d get a stipend, to run a fake commune, with fake members, as a religious community. She would take care of the paperwork, and be able to stash millions from the government, so her ex-husband wouldn’t be able to get his hands on it.” 

“Tax fraud. You committed tax fraud,” Diego said. Klaus nodded. 

“Yeah, so we put on a couple parties, show off my powers, try to grow the mystery so the whole thing seems believable. And for a while Ben was game, right? He didn’t like the tax fraud and all, but he helped me out, we were working on my powers together. Now, I don’t know if you all noticed, but Texas kind of sucks especially for men who would really like to wear eyeliner, so I said why don’t we take this shit to California?” He exhaled a thin plume of smoke. “Beatrice thought it was a good idea, she got me a fake lecture.” 

“A fake lecture?” 

“Yeah, it was supposed to be hyped up and all, they were billing me as some sort of spiritual guru or whatever. They sold tickets, and had people waiting in line to buy them, but didn’t actually let anyone in. People who got real tickets and got in were paid actors, we didn’t want anyone at the lecture, we wanted people _wishing_ they were, you see? Like think of nightclubs. People want to go to the big ones, even if they never get in, they’ll stand in line all night.” 

“I know this isn’t the point but I know the T.V. show you stole that from,” Allison told him. Klaus laughed. 

“I missed you guys so much.” 

“So what happened at the lecture?” Five pressed. Klaus took a moment to inhale more smoke before continuing. 

“Ghosts showed up,” he answered. “It was just a handful, at first. None of them knew they were dead, though. They drifted right through the walls and sat down in the chairs we’d set up and expected me to talk.” 

“So you did?” 

“I mean, not really. I just said some stuff, not much. Song lyrics, whatever Marie Kondo is on about. Nothing spectacular, nothing I made up, at least. I thought they’d leave. Only they didn’t, they became even more convinced they weren’t dead. And Ben…” Klaus took a shuddering breath. “Ben believed them too.” 

“Or you’re lying,” Diego countered. “This is nuts.” Klaus shrugged. 

“They won’t leave me, they’re physical when they’re around me, they believe they’re alive and they gave up their lives to follow me. And Ben. Ben believes it. It’s this mass ghost delusion and I can’t stop it.” 

“Dad said time travel can mess with your mind,” Five murmured. “Do you think- has he been off, since time traveling? He didn’t go with you before?” 

“This is his first time, and he was fine until he was around other ghosts. There’s a lot you guys don’t know about the dead.” 

“Summarize,” Diego growled. Klaus looked up at Diego, looking so lost. 

“They lose their humanity, most of them,” he said slowly. “They become these shells, like caricatures of what they were, they become a parody of life and they lose perspective. That’s the defining feature, really. They lose perspective.” 

“So you broke Ben?” Luther demanded. “You drove him crazy?” 

“Watch.” With a snap of his fingers Klaus had Ben and a young woman, dressed like the other cult members, summoned, corporeal and one on either side of him. “Ben, this is Jill. You remember Jill, right?”

“Right,” Ben said slowly, looking suspiciously at his brother. 

“Jill is dead, Ben,” Klaus told him. 

“She’s right there.” 

“She’s dead.” Without warning Klaus put his entire arm through her head. “See, Ben? She’s dead. How else can I put my hand through her?” Ben rolled his eyes, looking put upon and gazing at his siblings with exasperation. 

“I hope you guys don’t fall for this shit,” he said. “That stupid cult of his does, but I see through it.” 

“To give you a sense of how the last three years have been,” Klaus continued, banishing both ghosts, “I, Klaus Hargreeves, have been in this house and on the road alone with a ghost cult and Ben, and between all of us I have the strongest grasp on reality.” With his cigarette finished he got up to stub it out in an ashtray on the mantle above the fireplace. No one spoke for a long while, Klaus fumbling with the ashtray, back to them, then leaning his head against the mantle. “Diego?” 

“What?” Diego did not seem happy to be singled out. 

“I’m sober right now, but, uh. Behind the books on the shelf third from the top, right behind you, there’s a bottle I’d very much like you to get rid of.” 

“You’re sick,” Diego spat, tugging Vanya back toward the door. “We’re leaving, this is twisted.” 

“So Ben is crazy now? Is that what you’re telling us?” Allison asked. 

“Of course you’d find a way to fuck up Ben,” Luther sighed. 

“Look, this is a little disturbing, I have to admit,” Five said, getting to his feet to stand between his family and Klaus. “But all our powers are a little disturbing. We’ve all killed people. This isn’t Klaus’ fault.” Klaus hadn’t turned around from the fireplace, he had his forehead on the mantle and his eyes closed. While it was a little high up for him in his thirteen year old body, Five blinked over to the bookshelf, shoved all the books off it and grabbed the bottle of cheap rum. “So, Klaus, under what circumstances is Ben untrustworthy?” 

“It’s just this cult shit,” he whined, turning around to face all of them. “He’s just a little confused, all right? But he’s not crazy. He’s not. It’s just these ghosts are kind of confusing and persuasive, there’s a lot going on when they’re around.” 

“He’s not crazy but you are,” Diego insisted, but Vanya was already pushing away from him, distancing herself from his protective arm. Allison took a step toward Klaus, then another until she was right in front of him. Very slowly her hand came out to cup his face and he leaned into it, he likely hadn’t been touched by anyone living in a very long time. 

Five knew what that was like. 

“You didn’t break Ben,” she told him. “You didn’t ruin Ben. You didn’t plan this, did you?” Klaus desperately shook his head. 

“Of course not! I- I _need_ Ben, I didn’t mean to do any of this!” 

“I know, I know,” Allison soothed. “We’re here now, we can work on it together. You’re not alone. Five is going to go get rid of that bottle, and anything else you have stashed in here you want to let us know about, and then we’ll work on it. We’re not leaving you.” 

“Thank you,” Klaus whispered as she steered him back to his cushions, sitting down with him. 

“First of all tell us where the rest of your booze is,” she said, “then you can tell us what you’ve tried and maybe we can figure something out.” Klaus licked his lips, looking up at all of them. 

“There’s a flask in the air vent,” he said finally, “and two bottles of vodka buried in the garden. I haven’t touched it!” he hurried to assure them, “I swear, three years sober! It’s there… just in case.” 

“Three years sober?” Diego asked with an eyebrow raised. “And who can confirm _that_ one?” 

“Come on, Diego, let’s go check out the garden,” Five muttered, walking over to his brother and grabbing his sleeve to jump him out the back door. The sun was only starting to set, Five didn’t know what a night in a mansion full of ghosts was going to be like, but he’d survived worse. 

He hoped. 

“This shit is messed up,” Diego muttered as they tromped down the back patio and towards the grassy yard beyond. 

“Everything is messed up, why you chose this hill to die on I don’t know,” Five retorted, opening up the bottle of rum he’d taken from Klaus’ bedroom. 

“We can’t ever see Ben now. Apparently he was fine back in our normal lives, but coming here messed him up and now he’s gone _forever_.” 

“Blame me for that, then. I’m the one who jumped us here, it was probably the time travel that started to unravel him. He might be the first ghost in history to time travel, and it was a huge leap.” Five necked a mouthful of rum from the bottle. “So if you’re going to be mad at a specific someone and blame them for losing Ben, I think it ought to be me. And yourself too, you spent years ignoring Klaus when he talked about Ben because he was high.” 

“How do you know about that? You weren’t even there.” 

“Vanya’s book,” Five answered smugly. “So if you have all this guilt over how you treated them, then that’s understandable. But if you take it out on Klaus then you’re just being an asshole. Take it out on me. You wanna throw a punch? I’ll let you get one in.” No one had dealt with Ben’s death in any real way, Diego especially. Diego who had to save everyone, who was living his life to make up for his failure when it came to Ben. To have him unspooling now before their very eyes, that was going to be hard. 

They stopped walking, Diego looking out at the sunset as the yard was slowly populated with blue clad cult ghosts. “You can just ignore them, if you want,” Five told Diego as he started walking toward what looked like a little garden patch. “I’m curious.” 

“Sometimes you sound like Dad, a little too much,” his brother complained but followed him. “Be careful.” Five ignored Diego, but he did think it was a little ironic that he should be the one to warn him. But Diego had never much cared for spooky things. The woman from before, the one Klaus had called Jill, was tending to the garden and smiled up at them as they approached. 

“Jill, right?” Five asked, kneeling down with her in the dirt. She looked so normal, she could almost pass for living. 

“Right, and you’re the prophet’s brother?” 

“I am.” 

“You’re very lucky to be related to him,” she said. “He’s incredible. Without him, I would be so lost in life.” 

“Where would you be, without him?” 

“I was going to go to Berkeley, on a full ride scholarship,” she told him, “but I gave that up to follow the Prophet. This is where I need to be.” 

“Incredible. Jill, do you know everyone here?” 

“Yes, we’re all very close.” 

“So you would notice if someone tried to… sneak in, right? If someone tried to impersonate a- what is it you call yourselves?” 

“We’re Destiny’s Children,” she answered with a helpful smile. Behind him Diego snorted, but Five didn’t get it. 

“Right, so you’d notice, if someone… didn’t belong?” 

“We all belong here.” 

“But if someone else came here, you wouldn’t recognize them, would you?” The woman cocked her head to the side, she was smiling but looked thoughtful. 

“Probably,” she said at last. 

“So if someone does try something like that, to infiltrate, then you come and tell me,” Five told her seriously. Jill laughed. 

“I’d probably tell the Prophet,” she said. “You seem nice, though.” Useless. 

“Was there some sort of… accident?” Five asked. “Before you could actually attend Berkeley. Do you remember a car accident or being attacked or an illness or something like that?” The woman frowned. 

“Nothing, just the Prophet,” she answered. “You’re asking strange questions, it’s making me uncomfortable.” 

“Does your family talk to you?” Five asked. “Did they stop talking to you when you started following the Prophet?” 

“Stop it, Five, you’re freaking her out,” Ben said suddenly, materializing with them in the garden. Jill looked up at him then back at Five. 

“Ben she just looked right at you,” Five pointed out, getting to his feet and brushing off his shorts. 

“I can’t see him, though, because he’s a ghost,” Jill explained sweetly. 

“Yeah,” Ben agreed, “she can’t see me because I’m a ghost and she’s alive.” Fascinating, there really was not enough time to study what the hell was going on here, but Five had indulged his curiosity enough. 

“I’m only here to look for some bottles that got buried in the garden,” he said. “Do you think you can at least help me with that?” 

* * *

_Diego_

Diego watched the ghosts, he’d been watching them since they first got there and he was not about to stop. Klaus called them harmless but Klaus got off on danger, Klaus did not have a good handle on what exactly anyone else found tolerable. If at least Diego could get a routine, a pattern down, if he could predict them just a little bit, then maybe he’d feel a bit better about this whole crazy thing. 

“Want some coffee?” Vanya offered, coming to sit next to him on the marble staircase. She handed him a mug anyway, and he accepted it without a word. “Did you really stay up all night?” 

“Slept a little, Luther kept watch. I don’t think it’s safe for all of us to be asleep at once.” 

“They seem fine,” Vanya told him. “A little odd, but so long as you don’t tell them they’re ghosts they’re like people.” 

“He can’t control them, that’s the problem. He can make them corporeal, but he doesn’t choose that they do.” 

“You were a little mean to him last night,” Vanya told him. Diego narrowed his eyes at her, what would she know about it? You could be nice, you could be mean, carrot or stick Klaus did what he wanted and made a mess of things in the process. 

“Do you not remember Ben?” he asked. Vanya shook her head. “Damn.” 

“If I remember him, though, won’t I also remember him dying?” 

“Well, yeah, but you’d still remember him. That’s more important, taking the good and the bad all together so you can have something, right?” 

“The way you guys talk, I’m not so sure.” Vanya stared down into her own mug of coffee. “It was bad, wasn’t it?” 

“You’ll remember eventually,” Diego said, “until then you probably don’t want to hear about it.” 

“Or do you just not want to talk about it.” Diego didn’t answer her as he took a sip of his coffee. They’d spent the night in a haunted mansion surrounded by delusional and possibly violent ghosts and learned their ghost brother was suffering some kind of ghost dementia, they’d talked about plenty. Also, Vanya tended to lose control when she thought about their childhood. No need to end the world early. 

Allison came into view, around the corner and followed by two cult members. She was handling it well, maybe dealing with paparazzi and rabid fans had given her the skills to manage these ghosts. That was Allison, though, she was adaptable. She could be plopped down in the 60’s and not end up in a nuthouse. Diego got a little satisfaction from the fact Luther hadn’t made out much better, he’d found another older man to be supplicant to. 

“Do you two want anything to eat?” Allison called up. Diego held up his coffee as an answer, and Vanya replied in the negative. 

“Have you seen Five?” Vanya called back, Allison hesitated before moving toward them to stand at the base of the staircase so they weren’t shouting over the heads of the ghosts. “I saw him in the kitchen about an hour ago, gave him some coffee.” 

“Oh, good,” Allison laughed. “The kid runs on the stuff. No, I haven’t seen him.” 

“What about Luther?” Vanya asked, and Diego suspected she was trying to re-learn their names. 

“Luther I saw,” Allison said, “I think he was looking for food. Do you know there’s no meat here? Are they vegetarian ghosts?” 

“Sh, not so loud,” Diego hissed, looking around. “Don’t tell them they’re ghosts. They’ll go crazy or something.” 

“You think?” Allison raised her eyebrows. “Don’t worry, Diego, if they go crazy and try to kill you I’ll protect you.” 

“Can you rumor them?” he asked. “You should try, what if you can’t?” Allison rolled her eyes at him, which was unfair. She should take these things more seriously. 

“I’m not going to rumor them,” she retorted. “Just treat them like people, all right? Or is that _that_ hard for you?” 

“Fuck off.” Allison leaned against the railing, sighing. 

“And, um, where’s Klaus?” Vanya asked. Allison grimaced. 

“Who knows,” she replied. “Who the hell knows.” Vanya seemed a bit put out by that, she’d really bonded to Klaus but he was the one who’d found her, so it made sense. She’d get her memories back eventually, then she’d go back to favoring Five. But if you hadn’t missed him for seventeen years, it was hard to appreciate him now, in all his cantankerous assholery. 

“So we just wait around, see if Five has any idea-” The front door to the mansion burst open and a man, tall and blond in a black trench coat, stood in the doorway, silent and motionless. 

Diego was in front of Allison and pushing her up the stairs before he even registered what was happening. They were at the top of the stairs before the gunfire rang out, loud against the marble of the floors and stairs. “Run!” Diego shouted at his sisters, urging them down the hall. 

“I’m not leaving you alone out there,” Allison retorted. 

“You need to get Vanya to safety,” Diego told her seriously, squeezing her shoulder and looking into her eyes. “We need her safe.” 

“Be careful.” 

“You too.” They nodded, once, affirming what had to be done, before Allison turned and grabbed Vanya, hauling her off down the hall. They’d only gone a few yards before the gunfire ceased, and Diego, grabbing a knife, turned to crawl his way back to the top of the stairs and survey what was going on. 

The man had opened fire indiscriminately, and the seven or so cult members had been torn apart. Not in reality, they’d taken the bullets but there was no blood in their veins to pour from the wounds. They all had stopped what they were doing to stare at the intruder, who stared back. One of the cult members, Jill, the woman Klaus had summoned last night, approached the stranger, looking confused. 

“What are you doing?” she asked. The man took out a pistol and shot her in the face. She remained standing, but looked a little upset. 

“He could’ve killed her!” another cult member cried. “He- he could have killed her if she wasn’t protected by the powers of the Prophet!” The other cult members agreed, a murmuring passing through them like a low hum. They all agreed the man could have killed her, but the more they went back and forth about the danger one of their own had been in, the more their murmurings grew louder and louder to a fever pitch of rage. It wasn’t long before they were shouting, frothing and angry, pacing back and forth in their anger. The intruder, far too late, seemed to think about retreating, but then they lost control of themselves. 

The ghosts surged forward, shrieking, hands outstretched. 

The intruder didn’t stand a chance. 

**(Gore)**  
  
They pounced on him like lions and tore at him like piranhas, using their teeth and clawing fingernails to gouge out chunks of his flesh. Spurts of blood coated the ghosts and the floor but it only seemed to spur them on, they drank it up. The man was still screaming in agony when they began eating him, but it wasn’t long after he fell silent. Diego didn’t know if they had just given up on spitting out the chunks of flesh they pulled off with their teeth, or if they really had the intention of consuming him, but all he could see were gnawing mouths with strips of skin stuck between the teeth, blood and tendons and guts and muscle disappearing down their throats. 

Diego was considering leaving his hiding spot to stop what was going on when Klaus emerged from his bedroom, dressed in a silk robe and black underwear, cigarette between his fingers. “Aw,” he whined, surveying the scene before him, “that wasn’t very live laugh love of you, Karen.” Klaus didn’t seem to register the horror of what was taking place, he meandered over to the ghosts and nudged one with his foot. “Knock it off.” 

To Diego’s surprise the ghosts did, all of them falling back on their haunches with blood and flesh and skin still hanging from their mouths and clenched in their fists. They stared up at Klaus from where they had all gathered around the intruder’s sunken chest cavity, his broken and snapped ribs sticking out like a desolate mountain range. Klaus took a long drag of his cigarette before continuing. “Go bury this thing in the yard and clean up.” 

“Yes Prophet,” the ghosts murmured, not at all looking chastised, working together to haul the body up to carry it off. Guts and flesh and bits of bone spilled out in their wake, but they assured Klaus they’d be back to clean up and then they were gone, shuffling their way through the house to the back door. 

**(Gore finished)**

“Come on out, Diego, they’re gone,” Klaus called up to him and Diego realized he was still crouched upstairs and peering through the railings, like a kid trying to stay up past his bedtime. He got to his feet and wobbled down the stairs, Klaus’ dark eyes following him wordlessly. They stood on either side of the carnage, staring at one another, his brother’s face was unreadable. 

“Have they done that before?” 

“Ghosts have, or at least tried,” Klaus answered, taking a long drag on his cigarette and issuing out a smoke ring. “I think the worst thing is they don’t think to use tools, it’s always just their hands and their teeth.” 

“What the hell.” Allison and Vanya were at the banister then, staring down at the wreckage. Klaus dropped down to stub out his cigarette in the pool of blood, before turning and waving up at his sisters. 

“It’s all right,” he told them, “he’s one of the commission people sent to kill us. We’re safe now.” 

“I’m gonna be sick,” Vanya called out, voice trembling. Allison went to help her, they both rushed off but Klaus and Diego stayed, eyes locked, neither moving a muscle. Diego felt as if he ought to say something, that was how Klaus’ staring always made him feel, like it was a dare, an invitation, an egging on. But what was there to say? What he’d seen was horrendous, and Klaus was standing there like his pet cat had thrown up on the carpet. 

“What does Ben think of this, huh? This have him convinced yet?” Klaus broke their eye contact, he looked to the left. His profile looked so serious. 

“Nope,” he replied, popping the “p”. “Anyway are you hungry?” 

* * *

_Vanya_

Vanya’s hands had stopped shaking, but she still felt cold, she still felt numb, and she regretted deeply she hadn’t let Diego take her out of the mansion the night before. Upstairs she’d been sick and a little panicked, but Allison had calmed her down and gotten her a cup of tea, which she was still nursing as they all sat around in a circle on the floor of her brother Klaus’ room. The brother who had tenderly held her, who had been so apologetic that she’d had to spend a month alone and confused, whom she had had a sleepover with and stayed up doing their hair together and fallen asleep cuddled up together under the same blanket. 

The brother who was at the head of a vicious cult of ghosts he could not control. 

“I told you this was the safest place,” Five was saying smugly. 

“Funny, I don’t feel very safe,” Luther spat. “Those freaks killed a man with their bare hands.” 

“In their defense they were shot at,” Klaus pointed out. 

“The Commission is after us again, which must mean we’re on the right path,” Five stated. “We can guess a little bit at what the Commission has planned based on that, at least. Vanya wasn’t supposed to be found, she and Klaus were attacked leaving the farm.” 

“But isn’t the ghost Klaus is talking to from the Commission?” Allison asked. “So can’t the ghost tell us what happens to end the world?” Everyone looked at Klaus, who took a long while to notice he was supposed to answer. 

“Klaus,” Luther snapped. 

“The ghosts know some stuff,” he said slowly. “We can piece some stuff together, but we don’t have the full picture.” 

“So what are our next steps?” Diego asked. 

“Klaus and I have been working on that,” Five said. “Right now it’s not safe to be separated. We need to stick together, under any circumstances.” 

“I need to go back to the farm,” Vanya spoke up. “I- I need to go see them.” 

“You can’t leave by yourself,” Five told her dismissively. “What we need to do is focus on getting your memories back.” 

“Hey, be nice,” Klaus spoke up, “she doesn’t remember us, she remembers them. They’re the only people she knows.” 

“I understand this has been difficult for all of you, but we really don’t have time for Vanya’s feelings,” Five insisted. 

“Counterpoint,” Allison interrupted, “that’s all we have time for.” Everyone looked at her, waiting for her to continue. “You all have said it yourselves, if you could forget all this shit you would. How can we expect her to want to get her memories back if we don’t deal with it?” Allison looked at Vanya with so much emotion it was hard to pick out what she was feeling so much as she was feeling it strongly. “Look at her, she’s barely handling one dead body.” 

“She wasn’t supposed to ever handle a dead body.” Ben materialized next to Klaus, looking around at all of them very seriously. “This isn’t a memory thing, she’s never seen a dead body before.” 

“She’s seen one before,” Klaus muttered, hand coming up to his mouth so he could chew on his thumbnail. 

“I’ve seen a dead body?” Vanya asked. 

“How does this sound,” Five said. “Vanya, you can go back and see those fun farm folks once we make some progress on your memories. Then you can go back and tell them you’re getting better, let them know you’re ok.” Vanya didn’t want to agree to that compromise, she wanted to forget this all existed and go back to Sissy and Harlan and Carl. 

Looking around, though, she knew they all felt the same way. They all, given half the chance, would take her place in a heartbeat. So much weighed on them, they all had the look of people with the world on their shoulders, each of them seemed haunted and exhausted. But they couldn’t forget, they had nowhere to run to. All they had in this strange world was each other, so she could stay for them. She owed them that much. 

“I’ll stay,” she agreed. “But after a few days if we don’t have any progress then I need to go see them.” 

“Deal,” Five told her. “Now, let’s focus on those memories.” There was silence, Vanya had almost finished her tea and all the focus on her made her nervous, she downed the rest of her tea and set her mug aside. 

“We don’t actually know anything about amnesia, do we,” Luther said despondently. 

“Has anything felt familiar yet?” Diego asked. “Anything at all? Not even Ben?” Vanya shook her head. None of these people jogged any memory, any emotion. She felt bad, the way they looked at her they so badly wanted her to remember, but she just couldn’t. No one, not the blue glowing young man, the honestly haggard looking seance, the ape man, the caveman, the put together woman, or the child reminded her of anything. 

“No, sorry,” she told them. “I- can we do this later? I’m- this is a lot to handle, can I-” 

“There’s tons of spare rooms here, pick one and have a nap or something,” Klaus told her, starting to get to his feet. “I can show you-”

“It’s ok,” Vanya stammered, stumbling up by herself. “I’ll just have a look around.” The pain in her brother Klaus’ face was immense, deep and calm like an ocean. “I just need some time,” she told them. “Just some time.” Time didn’t seem to be something they had, but they quietly gave it to her as she slipped from the room. 

* * *

_Allison_

Once Vanya left Klaus rounded on Diego with genuine anger in his face. “Look you bastard I want to go back to being a useless junkie too, but I _can’t_ ,” he seethed. “So stop looking at me like that!” 

“Looking at you like how?” Diego yelled back. 

“I don’t like my powers either,” Klaus turned to all of them, his emotions were spiraling and Vanya’s blatant rejection had not helped. “I _hate_ it, ok? I hate every goddamn _second_ of being sober. So you know what?” He was stumbling to his feet, hands shaking, they’d gotten rid of the booze he’d told them about but he never told them everything. “I don’t care if you think it’s disturbing or gross or whatever. You spent years telling me to get sober and now I am and now my powers are working and you guys can’t-” He stopped himself from saying whatever he was going to say with a grunt of frustration. 

Allison hurried to stand up with him, she reached out to stroke her hands on his shoulders, his upper arms. Loving Klaus was having your hands on him so he couldn’t sneak off and self destruct by himself. “Klaus, please, take some deep breaths,” she urged him. “We’re right here, ok?’ 

“No, you guys think I’m a freak, you- you’re scared of me,” Klaus muttered, jerking his head so as not to look at Allison. No one said anything, because the lie was that they weren’t scared and the truth was that they were terrified but the truth seemed like it might break his very delicate psyche. 

“We are afraid,” Diego said softly, getting to his feet to join them, laying a hand on Klaus’ shoulder. “We just saw a bunch of ghosts cannibalize a man in the foyer, Klaus. That shit is scary.” 

“You don’t have to tell me that!” Klaus shrieked, trying to tug away from them. “I’m the last person in the world you have to convince! What did you think it was like for me, growing up? What did you _think_ ghosts were like?” 

“You’ve seen stuff like that before?” Luther asked, getting to his feet and moving toward them but not within arm’s length. 

“Yes!” Klaus cried. “Yes every goddamn day they do it to each other, they tear each other apart and they scream and the try to claw at me and they try to do that to me- they- they almost did, they-” 

“What we saw today, that almost happened to you?” Allison asked, confused. “Ghosts were never corporeal growing up-” 

“No, no no no no no,” Klaus started whimpering, his hands coming up to clamp over his ears. 

Reginald fucking Hargreeves had a lot to answer for. 

Klaus was no longer listening, he’d slipped out of their reality and was reliving some horror. Allison tugged him to sit down on his pile of cushions that she assumed he used as a bed, he went with her but wouldn’t take his hands away from his ears, his eyes were wide and terrified, his mouth moved soundlessly as tears began to form in his eyes. Diego had bought him makeup, he was wearing it and it threatened to streak down his face. 

“Can someone get me some tissues?” Allison asked. 

“What’s going on?” Luther asked as Diego left to do what she asked. 

“He’s upset,” was all she could offer, she didn’t know what was going on but for the first time in her life she was going to try and meet it head on. This had happened before, when they were younger, it felt like several lifetimes ago she’d walked away from him, curled up in the fetal position on his bed with his hands over his ears. She’d walked out of the Academy and out of their lives. 

She wasn’t walking away anymore. 

Allison rubbed his back, stroked his hair, let him lean on her and cleaned up his tears and makeup when Diego eventually just handed her a roll of toilet paper. As a mother she’d never been able to calm her own daughter down, and felt the familiar anxiety and frustration rise in her throat when he didn’t settle, but she kept at it. She encouraged him to take deep, gulping breaths, and he did, they worked and worked and eventually his breathing was back under control and he’d calmed down somewhat. Allison did not let go of her brother and he didn’t push her away, he stayed cradled against her with his head on her shoulder. 

“What the hell was that about?” Diego asked, moving to sit down on Klaus’ other side. 

“That hasn’t happened in a while,” Klaus admitted, dabbing at the corner of his eye. 

“Do you want to talk to us about it?’ Allison asked. Klaus shrugged. 

“I don’t even know what’s wrong with me,” he admitted. “It’s like sometimes I’m not… here.” 

“Where do you go?” Allison urged, rubbing his back soothingly. 

“It’s complicated.” Klaus sniffed. “When we were kids, part of my training was to try and summon ghosts.” The way Klaus spoke frustrated every last one of them, Allison knew that because she could see the impatience on Luther and Diego’s faces, it was how he meandered, fell silent, needed prodding and reminding. 

“Tell us about the training,” Luther cut in. 

“He- Dad-” Klaus swallowed. “He locked me in a mausoleum. Overnight. He would do it once a month for a few years, I- the first time, I was ten? I think?” 

“Jesus.” 

“You saw what they did to that Commission guy? They tried to do that to me. Not those ghosts. Other ghosts. They would scream at me, scream my name and try to- to-” Klaus gestured vaguely and gave a sobbing sort of dry laugh. “And one time they… did.” 

“They did what?” Allison asked, because it didn’t make sense, the Commission agent had been killed and eaten, Klaus had not been. 

“They tried to, I could feel their hands, I- sometimes I still do, even when there aren’t ghosts, I feel their hands and their nails and the way they- they- _clawed_ at me.” Klaus shook his head as if trying to banish the thoughts. “So don’t you guys try and tell me how disturbing my powers are. I’ve known. I’ve been there.” 

“So this is what you were trying to get away from,” Allison whispered. “All those years- why didn’t you tell us?” Klaus laughed. 

“You would have believed me?” he asked. “No, I- I didn’t think you’d care, or believe me, or if you did I mean it’s not like you can _do_ anything about it, I didn’t want to burden you all.” Klaus didn’t know, then, that Allison had seen this before and walked away. He didn’t need to, he was probably right in his assumptions. 

“New timeline new us, though,” Diego said, reaching out to put a hand on Klaus’ shoulder, squeezing comfortingly. “We’re listening now.” 

* * *

Allison and Vanya sat in the yard at an honestly adorable little breakfast nook on the patio. The ghosts had served them tea and some pastries, but Vanya wasn’t touching the food. Poor thing had only ever seen one dead body, and she didn’t even remember. “So, I was thinking you could sort of take the lead on this, we’ll talk about whatever you’re curious about or whatever you’re interested in trying to remember,” Allison said. “I know there’s probably a lot you’re still-” 

“What dead body did I see,” Vanya blurted out. “You said before I’d seen a dead body before.” 

“For the record I didn’t say that, that was Klaus, he can’t keep his mouth shut.” 

“Allison, please.” 

“Look, Vanya, this stuff is pretty painful. I’m not sure…” 

“What, not sure that I can handle it?” Vanya shook her head, her brown hair falling from where she’d tucked it behind her ear. It was a gorgeous hell this state, this time, the sun was beautiful and the gardens of the estate extraordinary, but as profound as this place was it was staffed by ghosts. All around them ghosts flitted, some of them with those stupid tattoos, all of them dressed in their culty blues, gardening, cleaning the ponds and pools, meditating in the shade of the old trees. There was no beauty to erase the way black people were treated here. There was no glossing over it. 

“We’ll go slow,” Allison said. “Some of this stuff might feel… overwhelming. We don’t have to do everything at once.” 

“Tell me, please. What dead body did I see?” Allison took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. 

“You saw Ben,” she began. “We were seventeen. The rest of us were on a mission, you weren’t there.” The memory was difficult to pin down, trying to put a narrative to it had it sliding away, it became all jumbled with the slightest bit of pressure. She was simultaneously at his funeral and driving the getaway car, simultaneously cradled in Luther’s arms as they waited outside the infirmary and watching Klaus perform CPR on site. 

“And he got hurt on the mission?” Ben had been dead before they even got to the Academy, most likely, with the amount of blood there’d been. At first it hadn’t seemed like a lot, by the time she’d gotten there Klaus was applying pressure, but it just kept spreading, growing and growing like a virus. 

“He did.” 

“How?” Allison swallowed, feeling suddenly cold. 

“The target was dangerous,” she began. “We all knew that. I…” And what was there to say? It had played over and over in her head, every movement, every word, every gesture. For years she’d tortured herself over what she could have done differently, how she could have protected her family better, how she could have met her obligations as a member of the Umbrella Academy. 

But that wasn’t what Allison wanted to say, because that wasn’t her. That was Sir Reginald Hargreeves in her head. 

“Allison?” 

“Dad blamed us,” she tried to explain. “Even at the funeral he blamed us for Ben dying. He said we should have been better, should have been more prepared, that we failed and let him down by letting Ben die.” The memory was almost too painful to recall, let alone speak out loud, and Allison found she couldn’t look at her sister in that moment, she closed her eyes and turned her face away in shame. 

“It wasn’t anyone’s fault,” Vanya said softly, reaching her hand across the table to grasp Allison. Allison laughed as the tears began to spill down her cheeks. 

“You said that before, at the funeral.” 

“Probably because it’s true,” Vanya insisted. Allison gripped her hand, trying not to hurt her delicate sister. 

“You and Ben were close,” Allison tried to explain, “especially after Five left. You said you had no reason to be there, in your book, after Ben died.” 

“Oh.” 

“And you weren’t the only one to feel that way. Klaus and Ben were close, very close. Everyone loved Ben, he was special. Important to us.” 

“Everyone seemed upset I couldn’t remember him,” Vanya admitted. “And I’m sorry-” 

“No, no, it’s- we’re just upset about anything that has to do with Ben,” Allison hurried to say. “To be honest I don’t think any of us have emotionally moved on from his funeral.” Once she said it it seemed true, they hadn’t actually stopped having the argument they’d started over Ben’s casket, any time they were together it was the same thing over and over and over again. Even Vanya’s book had ended there, she’d only written about their lives until they were seventeen. In Vanya’s mind there was no more story. Not just Vanya, but for all of them, there was no more story after Ben’s death. “Has anyone told you about the book?” 

“Diego did.” 

“Of course he did,” Allison grumbled. “Well your book ends with Ben’s death. Ben was important, his death was significant.” 

“You said I was close with him?” Allison wished she had Klaus there, he would love to discuss the ever changing social map of their family. Unfortunately he was in a bath, an event destined to last hours, so she’d have to do it herself. 

“Before Five left, you and Five were best friends,” Allison began. “We all got along, though. We would sneak out together, we would tell each other everything. And it’s not like you just wanted to play with Five, you me and Klaus did girl stuff too, like playing with Barbies and dolls and stuff.” Vanya smiled at that with a little laugh, these were good memories. Fun memories. “After Five left, though, things… changed.” 

“Diego said Dad got more strict.” 

“Yeah. A lot more strict,” Allison explained. “I used my powers more to get around it, but it was pretty harsh. And we, um. We.” The guilt of what they’d done weighted heavily on Allison, no matter she tried to justify it. “It wasn’t just us,” she started, even now unable to face it head on. “Dad became obsessed with the idea that Five was still alive, so he had Klaus in his office for hours at a time trying to conjure him. That’s what put it in our heads, I guess, that Klaus could talk to Five. We begged him to conjure Five for us, even though we hoped he was still alive, and when he couldn’t, we. We weren’t nice about it.” 

“What did we do?” 

“We stopped taking Klaus seriously, we ignored him. At that time he was already struggling with addiction-” 

“Thirteen?” 

“Yup, he’s an early bloomer,” Allison found herself saying, repeating the way he talked about himself. “That’s when things with Klaus started to break down pretty bad, Ben was one of the only one of us to still talk to him.” 

“And I was close to Ben, after Five left?” 

“Yeah, you were close to Ben, then once Ben died… nothing, really. None of us were close after that.” Allison frowned. “You and Diego, though. It’s always been intense, he doesn’t… good or bad he’s feeling it with all of his heart.” Being Diego’s sister was difficult, it was like being related to a wildfire, but Allison could always detach, she did it without thinking. Vanya couldn’t. Vanya could only stand there and be engulfed. “But even before your book, we didn’t… no one really saw each other. I left the state, Luther stayed, Diego wanted to be independent, he didn’t keep in touch. 

“What did I do?” Vanya asked. “Just ignore you guys?” 

“Well yeah, then you wrote that book and we all stopped talking,” Allison said. “It’s…” She waved. She didn’t know what to say. It’s ok? It’s complicated? It’s all in the past? Nothing was in the past here, it was all yet to happen, wasn’t it? How much would change, if they managed to get back? “Look Vanya, we’re bad people, all right? But we’re family so we might as well try and deal with it or something, instead of ignoring it or pretending to be something we’re not.” 

“We might be bad people,” Vanya said slowly, “but even bad people deserve a more complicated story than that.” Sweet, sensitive Vanya was far too good to them. They didn’t deserve it, they didn’t deserve any of it, but they got it. 

Who knew? Maybe she was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I didn't feel season 2 really addressed any of Klaus' issues that had been started in season 1, if the cult was supposed to be a ghost stand in I felt the parallels weren't drawn very clearly. That's sort of my impetus behind making the cult ghosts. 
> 
> I also got a little sick of the whole "Ben and Klaus argue that's their thing" in season 2, so I thought I'd flip the script from season 1 and Klaus is the one looking out for them, trying to keep things together. I also wanted to challenge the family dynamic to see what would happen if Ben was not reliable, if they had to actually just trust Klaus, something they (including Klaus) have struggled with. As well I think it's hinted at many times that time travel can cause mental repercussions, I wanted to show that as well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of talks and regaining memories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is more talking, they kind of discuss the abuse they experienced growing up. Aside from that nothing really content warning happens.

_Vanya_

Vanya had almost made it to the car when she realized she was being followed. It was dark, everyone had been asleep last she’d checked, she hadn’t even turned on the lights in the house, just grabbing her shoes and tiptoeing out. For a moment she stood stock still, listening to the soft footsteps behind her, wondering if it was one of the people sent to kill them and if she could make a mad dash to the car before they got there. 

“Vanya, you’re skipping out,” Klaus drawled, right behind her. She nearly jumped out of her skin as she whirled around to face him. 

“I need to see Sissy,” she whispered. “You wouldn’t understand.” Klaus gave a huff of a laugh, hand coming up to clutch at the dog tags around his neck. He was dressed in leather pants and his silk robe, the tattoo on his stomach exposed. 

“Oh Vanya, I understand more than you realize,” he told her, voice soft. “I know that you know you don’t belong in this time.” For a moment that statement hung in the air between them. “I know you know this isn’t your place, but I also know this is the only time you’ve ever felt real.” Slowly he approached her, she considered backing toward the car, but there was no way she’d make it. “I know that for the first time in your life you feel alive, even though you know you can’t stay.” Still his hand clutched at the dog tags around his neck, and for the first time Vanya realized it might not be his own name on them. “I know you never believed anyone would look at you the way she looks at you. I know that even though you know you don’t belong, you don’t want to leave because when she looks at you, it’s like breathing for the first time.” 

“I- I have to go see her-” 

“And Vanya, I know what you feel, and what she feels, that’s _real_. Ok? It’s real.” 

“But-” 

“But Vanya, they’re not ours to keep,” he told her sadly, there was so much sadness in his eyes, oceans and oceans she didn’t know how to cross, so she drowned in it with him. “They’re not ours. We can’t keep them with us. The best we can hope for is being able to say goodbye.” 

“I love her,” Vanya argued, tears pricking at her eyes. “I love her.” 

“I know,” Klaus told her, reaching out and drawing her to his chest. His bony hand stroked over her hair, his rings cold and heavy against her scalp. “You always will, that part is real.” 

“I don’t want to be here,” she whimpered into his bare chest. “I want to be with her.” 

“I know,” he soothed her. “Shh, shh, I know.” 

“It’s not fair.” 

“It’s not,” he agreed, letting her tears stain his skin. “It’s not fair, Vanya.” He held her tighter, she felt the dog tags and she didn’t want to know whose name was on them. It would be like seeing Sissy’s name on a tombstone. There was nothing to say, they had an understanding between them that transcended language, so all there was was to cling to one another and sob it out. 

* * *

_Klaus_

“So, Fivesy, the Handler’s daughter,” Klaus chatted, laying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. Ben was there, reading in the corner, where there was plenty of natural light streaming through the glass door to the balcony. 

“What about her?” Five asked. 

“Do you want her dead?” Klaus lolled his head to the side to stare at his little older brother. 

“Why do you ask?” 

“I’m just saying,” Klaus said. “Showing up here might put her in danger. And Diego seemed kind of attached.” 

“Do you think the ghosts will hurt her on sight?” 

“What ghosts?” Ben interjected, not looking up from his book. “It’s just me here.” Klaus looked at Ben, giving him a moment in case he wanted to stop being crazy, but he didn’t take it. Five hadn’t heard Ben, Ben was just visible to Klaus at that moment, Five was talking or ranting or thinking out loud but Klaus was still worried about Ben. He had hoped seeing their family would help out Ben’s mental processes, help him come to terms with reality. It hadn’t, but it had taken a bit of pressure off of Klaus. No longer were his days the same argument over and over and over with someone who refused to accept reality, and Ben got to see their family. With the others there and something to do, they could _finally_ talk about something else. 

“Are you listening to me?” Five asked. 

“Not really,” Klaus admitted. He thought maybe honesty would get him somewhere, but it didn’t seem to make Five any less annoyed. 

“You want to tell me why? Are there any ghosts here?” 

“Yeah, there’s a ghost here.” 

“Hazel?” Klaus considered lying, but what was the point? 

“Ben.” Five pursed his lips as Klaus sat up and scooted closer to where Ben was sitting. 

“Can he hear us?” Five asked. 

“He’s been responding, but I don’t know,” Klaus admitted, ducking down to try to get Ben to look at him. It was like this when he read, sometimes he wouldn’t acknowledge the world around him, he would just sit in the corner and read. Back in the normal timeline he’d read, he had a book on him and would read it when Klaus was asleep or fucked up. Now it was different, though, it was as if one day he wouldn’t look up. 

Klaus had seen ghosts like that, ghosts who lost more and more of themselves until they were reduced to a single habit, unable to do anything but that. They might be at a stove cooking, lighting a streetlamp, or in a rocking chair sewing. Those ghosts he hadn’t minded as much growing up, they ignored him, they didn’t want to be noticed, they didn’t need or want anything. Now, though, he was not a fan. 

“Has this happened before? To a ghost?” Five asked, coming to sit beside him. Klaus shrugged. 

“Ben’s different,” he explained. “I was scared, when he died, he’d be like other ghosts. But he wasn’t, he isn’t, still, not all the time.” 

“What do you think happened?’ Five asked. “It could have been the time travel…” 

“A lot of things changed, all at once. I got sober, Ben started spending time around ghosts, the time travel…” Five put a hand on Klaus’ shoulder. 

“We’ll figure something out,” he said firmly. Klaus swallowed thickly, nodding. “So, you were saying something about the Handler’s daughter?” 

“Oh, right, I was, wasn’t I,” Klaus sighed. 

“Why did you bring that up?” 

“Oh!” Klaus suddenly remembered, turning to Five quickly enough to startle the little man. “Oh, that’s because she’s here.” 

* * *

_Five_

Family, Five thought to himself, a mantra to keep him calm, they are your family and you love them. It was just unfortunate that so much was depending on Klaus and Klaus could not concentrate on a task for more than five minutes. 

Still, though, the cult had taken Lila captive and locked her in the wine cellar. 

“So,” Five began, pacing in front of the door to the cellar where Lila had her face pressed up to see him. “I know you’re the Handler’s daughter. I assume you’re here on her behalf, as you’ve been the entire time.” 

“Says who?” Lila stuck out her tongue. A cult member got stuck in there with her, the ghosts were mostly functional but not that great at physical boundaries. The way they couldn’t keep their hands off Klaus was evidence enough of that. “Where are we?” 

“We’re at my brother’s cult,” Five answered. “You’ve got one in there with you, you can ask her.” Lila looked at the pleasantly smiling woman. 

“This is weird.” 

“So tell me, what great offer does the Handler have? What sort of deal is she trying to cut?” Lila wasn’t answering him, she was looking at the cult ghost. “Lila, are we paying attention?” 

“What’s wrong with her?” 

“Doesn’t matter.” 

“She’s freaking me out.” 

“She’s freaking all of us out.” Five stopped pacing. “Just don’t spook her, you’ll be fine.” 

“Where’s Diego?” 

“What does the Handler want?” 

“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask her,” Lila retorted. 

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you can get out of here, can’t you?” Five stopped pacing and looked his captive up and down. “You’re more than you seem.” Anyone Commission trained would be able to get out of there, they’d just padlocked the wine cellar door, it wasn’t exactly tight security.

“I’ll give you the address, where she is, if you tell me what the hell is wrong with this woman.” Five smirked, walking right up to the glass. Lila would break out eventually, so long as the ghosts didn’t get her. Now the real question was did he let Diego see her? Diego didn’t want to see her. Or rather, Diego shouldn’t see her. They had left on ambivalent terms, no need to get his brother’s feelings all mixed up. 

Besides, he didn’t need the Handler. 

“I’m not interested in the Handler or what she has to say,” Five told Lila. “Every deal I’ve ever made with her has backfired. She is and always will be the Commission. The Commission is and always will be dedicated to defending the apocalypse.” 

“She’s got plans bigger than the Commission,” Lila said, grinning. 

“Well, funny enough, so do I,” Five returned. “Jill, come on out. And don’t open the door, I’d like to see Lila here escape on her own.” 

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Jill said, as politely confused as ever. All right, well, Klaus’ powers sucked. What good was it to commune with the dead if you couldn’t control them? Whatever. 

“Listen to me, Lila,” Five told her. “The Handler is using you. She only ever uses people. She wants a minion to do her bidding. So you make a choice now, make a choice later, on if missing your next meeting with the Handler is going to be worth what you’ll have to do to get out of here.” 

“Hey Five, I got a secret to tell you,” Lila laughed. “Come on, lean on in.” Five indulged her, moving closer to the door. “Piss off.” 

* * *

_Klaus_

“You know, Ariana was not wrong when she said happiness is the same price of red bottoms,” Klaus said, easing himself into the next pose in their routine. “Yoga, though, next best thing, right?” Ben smirked but didn’t look up from his book. There were ghosts joining in, they usually did, but what was even better was Vanya had agreed to do it with him, out in the main hall of the house. 

He had hoped Ben would join, but no luck there. 

“I don’t even know what that means,” Vanya laughed. 

“No one ever knows what he means,” Diego called out from where he was brooding in a corner. It was so good to have his family back. 

“We can meditate after this, that might help,” Klaus told his sister. 

“Isn’t yoga supposed to be silent?” Klaus blew Diego a kiss. This was great, finally people here, and yeah it had been kind of terrifying that they’d reject him after learning what had happened to Ben and the fact that ghosts sucked ass, but they were still there. More family than even he was expecting. 

“I figure mindful meditation might be the key to all of this,” Klaus continued, slowly stretching out on the floor. Vanya had respectable range, nowhere near as flexible as him, but she was keeping up. Maybe she’d done yoga before? It could all be muscle memory. 

“And since when do you know how to meditate?” 

“I learned in India, actually. It was super cool. Right, Ben?” Ben didn’t look up from his book. “Ben?” 

“It was all right,” Ben conceded. 

“We saw the Taj Mahal, though, that was fun, wasn’t it?” Ben looked up from his book at last, looking thoughtful. 

“I liked Mexico better, we got to go to the beach,” he decided with a small smile. That had been fun, the whole cult had gotten in on it and even Ben had dipped a toe in the water. He had a body now, but he didn’t want to use it all that much. Maybe it was depressing, because it highlighted just how not alive he was. 

It was nice to know though that these years hadn’t been a complete waste of time. 

Three silent blond men stood at the door, watching with the same unfeeling gaze as they had in life. “You know you can join us,” Klaus offered them softly. They didn’t move. “It’s not good to hold grudges into the afterlife, you know. Makes you gassy.” 

“Who are you talking to?” Vanya asked. 

“You probably don’t want to know,” Diego muttered. 

“Everyone’s been saying that to me.” 

“The men who tried to kill us. The commission folks.” Vanya immediately sat up, looking around. “Oh come on we’re not even halfway done.” 

“Why are you talking to them,” she asked, looking concerned. “They- they tried to kill us.” Klaus sat up, legs in the lotus position, and looked at his sister. 

“They’re not trying to kill us now,” he said. “They’re just ghosts, like everyone else.” 

“They could still hurt us,” Vanya protested. “Diego, come on, this is weird, right?” Diego looked a little skeptical but just shrugged. 

“I mean, most jobs end at death.” 

“They’re not doing anything, just standing around. It’s fine,” Klaus assured them. “I’ll make sure they don’t become… corporeal or whatever.” 

“And you can control that?” Vanya asked. “There won’t be any accidents?” Klaus sighed. 

“Look, ok, I’ll explain it as best I can,” he started, but Ben was finally putting the book down and getting up, coming to sit next to him. “I’m, uh, I’m like the bridge, ok? On a good day I can be passive, just sort of let them cross as they please. If pressed, I can put up a toll booth.” 

“Let’s do some yoga,” Ben said, a very small smile on his lips. 

“Yeah, yeah let’s!” It had been ages since Ben agreed to yoga or meditation, both things Klaus was a little convinced would help him. He was also a little bit hoping the ghost cult would meditate their way to the afterlife, but that was a long term project. “Come on, Diego, yoga is good for you! Even Ben’s gonna do it!” Diego rolled his eyes and didn’t move a muscle. That was ok, he was by far the easiest to manipulate. “Probably for the best,” Klaus reasoned with a sly grin toward Vanya. “He’s just afraid I’ll show him up. I was always much more flexible.” Instantly Diego was on his feet and stomping over to them, Klaus gave Vanya a wink and she giggled. This was a good day. 

* * *

_Allison_

Klaus had offered yoga and meditation with him and Vnaya (and ghosts because apparently that was just a thing now?) but Luther had quietly asked to talk to her alone, so she skipped out on yoga and went with Luther to walk around the grounds of the estate. “It’s weird here,” Luther commented, looking around at the gardens and lawns and fountains. “But peaceful, you know?” Allison nodded. 

“I guess,” she agreed. “How have things been for you? You’re a boxer?” Luther nodded. 

“One of the few jobs I could get.” Allison knew what that was like. You could have all the education and poise you liked out here, it didn’t make much difference, especially if you couldn’t speak. “You work in a hair salon?” 

“That’s the day job. I’m also a civil rights organizer,” she answered. “With… my husband.” Luther nodded, he knew she was married. They came to stand on a balcony that overlooked the rest of the estate, leaning against the railing. 

“What’s his name?” 

“Raymond Chestnut. Ray.” Luther took it in, staring out at the garden. “Look, Luther-” 

“It’s fine, Allison,” he cut her off gently. “I- getting stuck here, stranded, away from everyone and everything you knew. It’s hard. Really hard.” He looked over at her, expression so very kind. “I’m… glad you weren’t alone.” He was, then. He’d been alone for a year and it must have been like the moon all over again. 

“I never stopped hoping, though. I never stopped thinking about all of you.” Luther nodded, he didn’t know what to say to that. He probably didn’t like being lumped in with the rest of their siblings, but that was how it had to be. She gently laid a hand on his shoulder. 

“Were you alone?” 

“Yes.” He swallowed. “I had a few… acquaintances.” 

“Uh-huh?” 

“I had a bit of savings, actually. From my fights. My expenses weren’t much, I was hoping…” Luther sighed. “There was this cocktail waitress, Autumn. We would talk, I’d help her out if any men were giving her trouble. She was working nights so during the day she could go to hairdressing school, she wanted to work in a salon. I was hoping I could save something up to help her out, maybe she could open her own salon or something. Someday.” 

“Tell me about her.” Luther had never had a friend outside the Academy. Luther got a bit of a goofy grin on his face. 

“She was originally from a small town closer to Houston, but she wanted to come to Dallas. More opportunity, didn’t want to be a small town girl married too early to the first or only man available. Her parents didn’t really approve. Her dad died when she was young, her mother remarried and had a few kids she was preoccupied with. And apparently the step-dad wasn’t… a great guy.” 

“I’m sorry to hear that.” 

“Yeah, but she got out. She left home and made her own way in Dallas.” Allison felt a pang of guilt, familiar guilt whenever she spoke with Luther, at the way he thought they all walked out. But they hadn’t, they’d saved themselves. In a situation like they were in, it was all they could do to save themselves. They only looked out for themselves, they didn’t come back for him. Luther didn’t even go to her first wedding. 

“Time travel isn’t exactly the best first experience of leaving home,” she mentioned. 

“If we go back, I mean- _when_ we get back to 2019- I-” Luther looked at her, eyes big. “Your husband won’t be there, will he?” 

“Luther,” she sighed, shaking her head. “Luther there can’t be anything between you and me.” 

“Why?” he sounded so hurt, so abandoned, so lost. “Do you not feel the same way?” 

“Oh Luther.” Allison reached out to touch his cheek. “Luther. I feel a lot of things for you. But that doesn’t matter.” 

“Why?” 

“I don’t know if you’ve come to terms with it, but we grew up in an abusive household.” Luther frowned, he seemed a little confused. A year on his own and he hadn’t yet figured it out. Lord. “Dad mistreated us. We weren’t raised well. I mean for God’s sake look at us! Do any of us strike you as well adjusted adults?” She saw the argument form on his lips, the same one that had been bandied about growing up: suffering was your own fault. Oh, Klaus, you got caned yet again for backtalk? Your fault for opening your stupid mouth. Oh Diego, you have to run extra laps because you didn’t react fast enough in training? Next time do better. Oh, entire Academy, you’re all fucked up adults? That’s probably because you didn’t adapt to and overcome your adversities. 

But it was bullshit. No one deserved to be treated like that. 

“I don’t see- even if it’s true- what that has to do with you and me,” he settled on eventually. 

“It has everything to do with it,” Allison told him. “We- we clung to each other in an uncertain time in our lives. In order to… deal with all the shit Dad put us through, we need to get out of that. We need to meet other people, make other connections, make other relationships.” 

“I don’t have other options!” Luther cried. “I- I’m a monster, Allison! No one will-” he cut himself off and turned his back to her, fists clenching. 

“I’ll still be there,” Allison told him. “And hey, before- before all this, you slept with someone? Or was Klaus making that up too?” 

“She didn’t know what I am,” Luther spat. “I can’t leave the Academy, Allison. When we get back to our time I can’t. What can I even do? Where could I go? I’m a freak.” Allison stepped up behind him, laying a hand on his back. “I don’t want your pity. You all left.” 

“We grew up,” she said, slow and emphasized. “People leave the house when they grow up. You can’t expect us to stay forever. You especially can’t expect or ask us to stay at the Academy with the way we were treated.” 

“We were all treated the same.” 

“No we were not!” Allison shouted, pushing his shoulder to turn him around to face her. “We _absolutely_ were not! When did you ever get hit? When were you ever yelled at? No, I’m serious Luther, look me in the goddamn eye and tell me one time you were denied dinner.” 

“That was because I could follow the rules,” Luther returned, eyes turning harsh. It looked so much like Reginald’s cold stare. 

“So, what? You’re perfect and the rest of us are fuck ups?” Allison demanded, arms crossed over her chest. She’d seen her siblings crumble under that gaze too many times over the years, she was putting a stop to this now. “Dad favored you, and gave you preferential treatment to keep you compliant. You did his work policing us. We weren’t punished because we misbehaved, we were punished because Dad was an asshole, an _abusive asshole_.” Allison took a deep breath. “And our punishments weren’t normal. I get there has to be discipline, but it’s abusive to work your children twelve hours a day, with only a half hour a week of free time. It’s abusive to hit them, it’s abusive to make them run laps until they faint. It’s abusive to send your children unarmed to stop a bank robbery. It’s abusive to send them to take down men with guns. And you know what?” It was hard, what she knew she was going to say, but it had to be said. “It’s abusive to force your children to do what you want.” Allison didn’t know if she was disappointed in the way Luther looked at her, if she was disappointed he couldn’t draw the parallel between Reginald’s parenting and her own. That was how it was, though, that was why she ran from them all: from Luther because he never saw who she really was, and from the others because they did. 

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Luther admitted quietly. 

“Well maybe I don’t want you to say anything,” Allison snapped. “Maybe you should listen to someone else, for a change.” Luther opened and closed his mouth, looking like he was out of his depth. “Look, I- and everyone else in this family- worked _very_ hard to be able to call what happened to us abuse. So if you’re not ready to say it then fine, but don’t you dare ask that we don’t. Don’t you dare act like we abandoned you when we saved our damn selves.” The hurt that Luther’s face held was genuine, he’d never been taught to consider their feelings and now was shocked no one seemed to consider what happened to him a tragedy worth centering. “Look, Luther. We should have come back, ok. Once we left we shouldn’t have cut off all contact, we should have… kept up with you. With what was going on with you. But even when we tried Dad got in the way. He wouldn’t let you leave, or talk to anyone. He didn’t let you even come to my wedding.” Luther looked at the ground, at least he had the decency to look a little abashed at that. “So if you wanna blame someone for how alone you were, blame him.” 

“You never invited me to your wedding,” Luther accused. 

“I sent invitations,” Allison returned. “If he hid them or burned them or whatever, that’s on him. Not on me.” They stood apart for a long while, staring each other down until Luther turned from her. As if sensing the emotional nature of the conversation the ghosts had been drawn in. From afar they behaved like people, they moved and talked like them, rarely phasing through objects. But up close there was a vacancy to them, a flatness to their selves, a flatness to their personality and ideas, they never quite made full eye contact. “Can we get a little space?” she asked, voice curt. The man who had wandered over seemed confused. 

“If you’re having problems,” he said, “maybe the Prophet can solve it?” 

“It’s not a problem, we just need to have a little space. To talk things out.” 

“Oh I see,” the man said as if he’d been given some profound understanding. 

“Space, please?” 

“Right.” The man slowly backed off, intercepting another ghost who had been on her way to poke her nose into their business. “They need space,” he informed her, tugging her off towards the shade of an old tree. 

“They listen to you,” Luther commented. “The ghosts.” 

“I haven’t tried rumoring them, if that’s what you’re wondering.” 

“No, no. They um, they don’t really listen to me. A couple have tried to follow me into the bathroom, even.” 

“You just need to be assertive.” 

“Well that explains why Klaus is overrun.” They shared a tiny laugh at that, it eased the tension somewhat. “Look, Allison I- I get that things weren’t good for you. For any of you. I just thought that you and I, that was maybe… one of the good parts.” 

“You were.” 

“Then why can’t we…?” 

“Because we need our own lives, Luther.” Allison joined him at the railing. “If we want to… if we want to heal, we need to move on. And it might mean leaving behind some of the good parts. I know when we go back home I’ll be leaving behind Ray. But I have to do it, I have to go home. So if I want to move on from how things were, in order to heal, I’m going to have to leave behind some parts.” Luther heaved a weary sigh. “It doesn’t mean goodbye. It just means we need to expand our worlds, not make them smaller. We can’t fall into each other like that. I’ll still be there, Luther, to help, to talk. We’ll still be a part of each other’s lives.” 

“There’s nothing for me, back home.” 

“I’ll help you make something. You won’t be alone, all right? We’ll work on it.” Gently she ran her hand over his arm. “Hey. You’re not alone anymore, all right? And you’re not a monster. You’re our brother. We’ll help you.” She could see he was having a hard time believing her, believing in a future. But he wasn’t fighting her on it anymore, he was looking out over the estate and in his own thoughts. Her words were nice but she didn’t blame him for having a hard time believing her. She’d abandoned her family plenty over the years. He’d never had a life without answering to their father, of course he was having a hard time visualizing it. “Hey. What about your life now, the one you have in Dallas, do you like?” Luther shrugged. 

“It feels like getting by,” he muttered. 

“What about Autumn, huh? If she got bothered by the men at the club, what would you do?” 

“I’d help her out.” 

“And that’s so you., Luther. Helping people, that’s something you love. You can be so selfless when you do. I don’t think the Academy will be a thing, when we get back. You can’t ask us to go back to that way of living. But there’s more ways to help people than be part of the Umbrella Academy.” 

“You mean like what Diego does?” 

“Forget Diego. There are millions of people helping millions of other people every day. You just need to find the way that feels right to you.” 

“We could do so much more, though, if we worked as a team.” 

“Well so far we’ve ended the world twice, so probably not.” 

“We owe it to the world, though. We can do things no one else can do. We should put it to good use.” 

“Of course we can,” Allison replied. “Of course. But the Academy isn’t the way we’ll do that.” The Academy was about ego. Bank robberies were not a threat to average everyday citizens. They had other struggles, something Allison had been embarrassingly insulated from until coming here. It had taken her this long to figure it out, she could give Luther some time with it too. There wasn’t much more to say, but they remained standing, shoulder to shoulder and looking out at the grounds. 

* * *

_Vanya_

It happened in her sleep that her dreams of Sissy and the farm morphed. She was no longer playing with Harlan in the field she was on stage, dressed in white, with her family dying in front of her. 

Vanya sat up with a scream, sweat breaking out all over her skin. As she sucked in deep breaths her door opened and Luther stepped in. “I heard you shout, are you all right?” he asked her, not daring to approach further. 

“If you’re scared I’m going to lose control you can just leave,” she spat. 

“No, I just-” Luther let out a noise of frustration and moved over to her in the dark, sitting down beside her on her bed. “I just wanted to give you some space. We haven’t always gotten along, and… I’m sure I’m the last person you want here right now.” 

“But you _are_ here,” Vanya told him, “that should count for something.” They sat in silence for a long while, each in their own thoughts. It was easier, somehow, having this moment without having to look at him. 

“Vanya,” Luther began. “I know you don’t remember, but. I owe you an apology.” Vanya was quiet, it seemed a lot of her siblings wanted to say sorry. “I should have just listened, I should have just helped you. Sometimes it feels, like back in our timeline, I was just this wind-up toy, or a train on a track, as if I had to do things the way he made me. That was wrong. I should have just… helped you.” Luther ran a hand through his hair. “I know you don’t remember it. But I also get it, I get why you want to stay on that farm. We didn’t treat you well. Those people were nicer to you, a total stranger, than your own family was your entire life.” Luther let his words hang in the air, he wasn’t asking her to accept his apology or forgive him, just to hear him. 

“Remember when Pogo assigned us that big essay,” Vanya started. “We had to research a historical figure. And I didn’t do it. I don’t even remember why, I was just distracted or something. So the night before you reminded me we had an assignment, and you stayed up all night with me to help me finish.” Luther was silent for a long while, in the dark she couldn’t see his face. 

“You got your memories back,” he said flatly. 

“You sound disappointed.” 

“It’s not that, it’s just… it was nice, to spend time together without all the baggage, you know?” 

“Yeah.” It had been nice, parts of it, at least. “Um, I know it’s late. I was sort of hoping to get back to sleep.” 

“Oh, right, yeah.” Luther hurried to get off the bed but Vanya put a hand on his arm, a small gesture that kept the large man in his place. 

“Stay, please. For a little bit. Just until I fall asleep.” There was an armchair in the room, Luther moved to sit there, a hulking guardian angel. “And Luther?” 

“Mm?” 

“I accept your apology.” The laugh he gave was out of pure relief, Vanya was sure. “There’s… a lot to be said, but I’ll… I’ll be here for it.” 

“Right. Get some sleep, Vanya. You’re safe.” 

* * *

Vanya had thought she would need to explain what had happened the next morning, when she slipped out of bed and went to join her family in the main hall of the house. But the instant they saw her they knew, she didn’t know what they picked up on, but they all knew. 

“So you got your memories back,” Diego said, voice tense. They were all seated in a circle, he was the one facing her when she came in. 

“You sound disappointed,” Vanya said, looking around at her siblings. Luther was giving her a brave smile, and Klaus looked happy for her, but Allison and Diego were a little more mixed, a little more unsure. 

“I’m not disappointed,” Diego sighed. “I- I just-” 

“I like the way things have been too,” Vanya announced. “I- we’ve been taking care of each other, the last few days. That doesn’t have to stop, what we started here doesn’t have to be unfinished just because I have my memories back.” 

“Now that she has her memories back, it might be when the Commission makes a move,” Five started, always right back to work, but Klaus waved Vanya over and she sat beside him, he tugged her close for a morning hug and pressed his lips to her hair. 

“Welcome back,” he whispered in her ear before releasing her. 

“The Handler knows I refuse to work with her, I’ve refused her deal so we can expect some sort of retribution. Not only will the Commission be after us, so will the Handler, working on her own.” Five frowned. “We need to focus. I expect the Handler might try another offer, but she doesn’t have her goons anymore.” 

“They have names,” Klaus interjected. “They’re Otto, Axel, and Oscar, ok?” 

“I don’t care what their names are!” Five cried. “They’re dead and that’s what matters. She can’t use them.” 

“There’s still…” Klaus twirled a hand in the air and hummed. 

“We can’t keep playing on the defensive,” Luther put in, “we can’t just wait around for the Commission to make their move.” 

“We can’t counter it unless we know what they’re going to do,” Diego argued back. And just like that they were off arguing, like how things usually went: Five disengaged when no one was paying attention, Allison tried to impose some sort of structure but was undercut by Klaus, who delighted only in chaos, while Diego and Luther shouted at one another. They’d made so much progress but that was gone now, it felt like. Her memories were back and they slipped into old habits. 

There was a knock at the door. Everyone was too busy arguing, so Vanya got up and went to go see what was up. 

The woman she’d met at Elliott’s, only briefly, stood on the doorstep. 

“Can I help you?” Vanya asked. While she didn’t trust the woman, she did look nervous. 

“I need to talk to Five,” the woman said. 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Vanya replied. “I don’t know who you are and the people here don’t like outsiders.” 

“Yeah the people here are really weird, but I need to talk to him.” 

“Let her in, Vanya,” Five called. Reluctantly Vanya stepped aside and the woman marched into the room, she was projecting a false confidence as she stood in front of the Umbrella Academy. “What do you want, Lila?” Diego was looking far more suspicious, he had long since gotten to his feet (yelling at his family was a rigorous activity, after all) and he slowly approached. 

“Look,” Lila started, eyes flitting about the room. “I shouldn’t be here. I have a job to get to, after all. I just came here to warn you.” 

“What job?” Five asked, slowly getting to his feet. Everyone in the room was defensive, Allison and Luther and Diego and Five all slowly moving, keeping Lila in their sights, Klaus hanging back from them and observing with those wide eyes that seemed to take in everything and nothing at all. 

“The assignment of a lifetime,” Lila laughed, but it was a harsh sound. 

“You shouldn’t be here,” Diego spat at her. “It’s dangerous. You’re in way more danger than you think you are.” 

“No, you’re the ones who are in danger,” Lila returned, voice heated. Her hands twitched at her sides and that had Diego reaching for a knife before anyone had even registered what was going on, but they remained like that. It was just nerves. “Five, there’s going to be some… staffing changes at the Commission. I don’t know what that means for the timeline, but…” 

“The Board,” Five murmured in shock. “She’s going after the Board?” 

“You don’t have to do this,” Diego told her, reaching out a hand in peace. “She’s just using you.” 

“ _Everyone_ uses _everyone_!” Lila cried, arms wrapping around her middle. “I used you, you use me, at least I stand to gain something here.” 

“She’s sending you to do it?” Five asked, frowning. “That’s insane, this isn’t the sort of job you can handle.” 

“I can handle it,” Lila spat at him. “I’m far more capable than you could ever imagine.” 

“Then why are you here?” Diego asked, taking a tentative step toward her. Lila really was not cut out for the job, she hadn’t noticed Allison and Luther edging around to flank her. With Vanya still at the door she had nowhere to run. 

“I just-” Lila looked around, floundering slightly. “I thought I might come rub it in your face, Five. You were supposed to do this but now I will, and I’ll be the one to rise with her when she takes over the Commission.” 

“It won’t work,” Five said, almost bored. “Think it through. She wants me dead. You’re just taking my place. You think after she takes over whoever killed the Board is going to be spared? I don’t care if you’re loyal to her, she’s loyal to no one but herself.” 

“You’re lying!” Lila seethed. 

“If you were sure about this you’d be gone already, you’re on a schedule,” Five reasoned, but it was Diego who was still moving closer to her. 

“I just came by to say… to ask you, Five, to keep Diego safe. I don’t know what’s going to happen-” 

“The Commission ends the world,” Diego told her firmly. “They want to preserve the timeline. The world ends, no matter what, if they get their way. There’s no keeping me safe. There’s no life I get to live out if the Commission gets their way.” Lila shook her head. 

“You don’t understand, she’s my family! When my parents were killed she took me in,” Lila said desperately. “I can’t betray her.” 

“You already have, just by being here,” Five told her. “I know what it’s like, ok? I know what they ask of you and I know how lost you can feel working for them. You never have more information than necessary, you never have the big picture. You can lose yourself, working for the Commission.” 

“They’re your family though,” Lila spat, gesturing around. “She’s mine.” Allison moved first, darting in from the side. When Lila tried to back up she smacked into Vanya, who wasn’t good for much other than a roadblock, a stall before Allison had Lila by the arm. Luther was a second behind Allison, grabbing Lila’s other arm, holding her still while she kicked and flailed and screamed. “Let go of me!”

“We’re trying to help you!” Luther told her sternly. Five jumped right up to her, but before he could say anything, Lila had vanished. 

* * *

_Klaus_

“So she didn’t do that before?” Klaus asked. Ghost cult had been nice enough to serve them lunch, it was curry today, something they’d learned to cook while they had been in India. With the garden out back they had a fairly fresh supply of fresh vegetables, you could really taste the difference. 

Ben had yet to ask why none of the cult really ate, but that bound to happen eventually. Ben couldn’t stay in crazy land forever. 

“What do you think?” Diego barked. Despite his anger and the obvious distress of finding out the exact identity of Lila his Lover, Diego was eating his curry. Vanya had been made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

“I know this isn’t the point but this is really good, Klaus,” Luther said, gesturing at his healthy portion. 

“Oh yeah, we picked it up in India. Not that I can cook for shit.” 

“You didn’t make it?” 

“The ghosts did.” 

“But you don’t control the ghosts?” Luther looked so confused, bless him. 

“I don’t control shit,” Klaus told him. 

“Can we refocus?” Five asked. “If she could jump like that all the time, we would have known, right? Or was it supposed to be a secret? If it was the plan to keep us in the dark we now have a leg up now, we know something they didn’t want us to.” 

“Here’s a thought,” Klaus started, licking his lips nervously. No one took him seriously, they were back where they started, but he had to try. The whole world probably depended on it or something. “She could have jumped earlier. She jumped when… when Five did it.” He wished so fervently for Ben to be there in that moment. It felt like he was back at the bowling alley trying, for the millionth time, to convince his siblings Ben was there, only this time he was on his own. 

“Like a mirror,” Allison agreed. “It might not be her power to jump, but to… mimic?” Klaus sighed in relief, the years (months for some of them, lucky bastards) had at least softened them a little to listening to him. 

Ben didn’t want any curry, but it had been offered. Ben was reading in the corner, and Ben had not turned a page in two hours. Losing him the first time had nearly broken Klaus, he hadn’t felt like a person again until he’d summoned his ghost. Now, though, the slow ebbing of him over years, the bits and pieces that floated away like a cliff into the ocean, that had to be worse. It was as bad as the first time in that he couldn’t stop it, worse because he had the time to do something, if he were a smarter, better person. The first time around Klaus had been able to hand wave and project and hide, you could always say a split second wasn’t enough time to react and save someone. 

A whole three years? No excuses. 

Around him the world continued to move, he hoped it wouldn’t miss him too much when he sunk into his thoughts. While the arguments with Ben were horrible, and each time he considered following Ben into that ghost delusion, they were better than the reading. The living siblings were arguing or debating or plotting, but Klaus had done his part, he was doing his part, for the whole saving the world. All he really had the energy for was to watch Ben and hope his brother looked up. 

“If that’s the case,” Luther reasoned, “what powers of ours has she seen?” 

“She’s seen ghosts,” Allison pointed out. 

“She didn’t know they were ghosts, though,” Five murmured. “I think it might be more likely she can reverse people’s powers back at them, the mirror metaphor was probably more accurate than a copycat.” 

“What does this all mean, though?” Diego asked. “So she has powers, she’s still working for the Handler. She’s still going after the Board.” 

“I say we let her,” Five proposed. “Without the Board, we can probably get away with a little more. Maybe there’ll be more wiggle room in the Timeline.” 

“Or she dies trying to.” Five looked Diego up and down, that calculating look he gave almost everything. Klaus hated that look, being on the receiving end reminded him too much of standing in front of Reginald Hargreeves. 

“In my estimation,” Five said slowly, “she will. The only person I believe who could handle a job like that is myself.” 

“And we’re willing to just let her die?” Diego demanded. 

“If I knew where she’d gone then no, I wouldn’t.” Five was always so cool and collected when he was explaining why people had to die. “Unfortunately, Diego, we don’t know where she is or how to get there.” 

“I mean if she dies we’ll know,” Vanya spoke up. “Right, Klaus?” 

“Depends on when she dies,” Klaus said, and felt a little bad at the look that put on Diego’s face. 

“We’re too in the dark,” Luther said. “I don’t like this, it’s always reactive. We need to take it to them.” 

“Look, Luther, I get it, but we’re safe here. They can’t touch us without expending an absurd amount of resources. The ghosts here would tear apart anyone who walks through that door who means us harm, and they can’t be stopped. If the Commission wants to make a move, they’ll be at a disadvantage. If we make a move, we’re at a disadvantage. I say we wait here until we get any more information.” 

“This whole thing relies on-” Luther started, but stopped himself and looked at Klaus, probably for the best. Whatever he was going to say probably would’ve been shitty anyway. “It’s just a lot of pressure on Klaus, is all.” 

“It is, so much more than you know,” Klaus sighed. Five was looking at Klaus in a way he did not like, he felt like a specimen under a microscope. “Anyway I’m gonna go for a swim, if anyone wants to come.” To his utter amazement Luther got up. 

“I’ll join you,” he said. Klaus hadn’t expected that, but he also wasn’t about to turn it down. 

“Yeah, yeah there might be an extra pair of swim trunks around! Let me go check!” Klaus was not about to let a little thing like swim trunks stand in his way, a few minutes of searching he had his own bathing suit and a pair of gym shorts that would maybe fit Luther. At least his large brother was narrow in the hips. 

“Are they always like that?” Luther asked, startling the absolute shit out of Klaus who leapt to his feet and whirled around. 

“Christ on a cracker!” he gasped. “You almost gave me a heart attack!” 

“Sorry,” Luther said, looking a little apologetic. “It’s just… are they always doing that?” 

“Who?” Luther rubbed the back of his neck, and stared for a while. 

“The, um… your friends,” he finally mumbled. “They’re always…” A gesture finally got the meaning through, Klaus looked down to where three cult members were stroking their hands over him, his back, his shoulders, chest, ribs. 

“It’s a little bit of a constant thing,” Klaus admitted. “Here, I found some gym shorts, they might-”

“Do you like it?” Klaus frowned at his brother. 

“I mean, it’s not the worst,” he said slowly. “If it gets overwhelming I can send them away for a little bit.” 

“I think I’d go crazy, if I had people touching me all day,” Luther said with a tiny smile. Klaus shooed the ghosts away so he could approach Luther, holding out the gym shorts. God, he’d been here for a year, all that time working as a boxer? He must not have been touched at all, except in violence. 

“Good thing I’m already crazy,” Klaus told him with a grin. “Will these work?” Luther took the shorts and grinned. 

“Should be fine.” 

“Ok, I’ll let you get changed.” Klaus left him alone in the room, one of the spare bedrooms, and went to go change himself. 

To his utter surprise most of his siblings had decided to strip down to their underwear and hop in the pool with him. Allison lifted her skirt to sit on the edge and dip her feet in while she sipped on iced tea, Diego had actually ditched everything but his underwear, Vanya was in her undershirt and Five’s shorts, and even Five had taken off his coat, shirt, shorts and socks to jump in in his undershirt and underwear. 

Allison was not happy when he cannonballed in next to her, but that was what siblings were for, wasn’t it? 

When Luther came out Klaus managed to talk him into a game of chicken, Klaus on his shoulders and Vanya on Diego’s. They won. They’d been out there for about half an hour before Ben finally joined them, stepping out of the house and blinking as if he’d never seen the sun. Klaus swam his way over to the edge and clambered out. “Ben,” he gasped, “Ben come join us, I’ll make you physical-” Ben shook his head. 

“It’s fine, I just- I feel a little groggy?” 

“You’ve been kind of out of it recently,” Klaus told him, reaching out. “Come on, we missed you. Give me a hug?” The corner of Ben’s mouth turned up, the closest to a smile he’d had in what felt like lifetimes. 

“Sure,” he agreed, stepping into Klaus’ waiting arms. 

And then something not so chill happened. 

It was a cold feeling, so instant and so freezing it felt like pain, Ben had disappeared and he couldn’t move. He wanted to look around for where Ben had gone but he couldn’t, all he could do was watch as his body shook and shivered before it was over. 

He heard Ben’s voice behind him as he collapsed to the ground, gagging as a wall of nausea overtook him. It was Luther who touched him next, methodically turning him onto his back and checking his vitals, saying something but Klaus couldn’t quite pay attention. 

“What happened?” he finally gasped out. 

“I think I was… _inside_ you,” Ben said, sounding like he was still in shock. 

“We don’t know, you just collapsed,” Luther told him, helping him to sit up. Klaus looked around at the concerned faces of his family, Ben’s included. Overall it wasn’t too bad, he’d had far worse and he was coming back to himself pretty quick. It was the shock of it all that affected him more than what had actually happened. “Are you all right?” Luther asked. 

“I’m all right,” he assured his siblings. 

“What happened?” Five asked. Klaus looked at Ben, who seemed just as lost. Unfortunately, they both knew what was going on, just not the implications. 

“Ben, um. I think Ben… possessed me?” Klaus tried. 

“That’s freaky,” Diego said helpfully. 

“Yeah no shit,” Allison shot at him. “Are you feeling ok?” 

“Yeah, yeah, it was just… yeah.” Klaus waved a hand and allowed Luther to haul him to his feet. As he wobbled he saw his family worry, but he was never stable on his feet, this wasn’t too out of the ordinary. 

“Can he do it again?” Klaus wished she’d just taken a gun and shot him when the words left Vanya’s mouth. No one said anything, he couldn’t look at any of them because they were all thinking it and no one wanted to chastise her until he’d answered. There was no middle ground, was there? There was only “Klaus is a dirty junkie who lies about seeing Ben” or “Klaus is only good for conjuring Ben”. How badly he wanted to just be a person, he’d never had the chance although he fantasized about it, but how to tell your family that? How to break their hearts for some semblance of autonomy? 

“Who cares?” Klaus looked up to see Ben, visible to the world, giving a disapproving frown to their siblings. “You should be asking Klaus what _he_ wants. It’s his body after all.” And oh wasn’t that good to hear. He hadn’t had a say in so much recently, it was nice to be reminded that he had a right to consent. Diego laid a hand on his shoulder and he finally turned to face his family. 

“You don’t have to,” Diego told him firmly. His voice was all choked up with emotion which only made Klaus sad, but he saw it in everyone else’s faces. They could give him this, even if it hurt. They’d do it for him. Even if it hurt, they’d give him his autonomy. Autonomy shouldn’t hurt like this but he’d take it. 

“Let me go talk to him,” he said. “Alone.” 

“Are you going to be ok?” Allison asked. 

“Yeah, yeah, just give me a minute,” Klaus muttered, already stumbling off toward his bedroom. Ben followed him, silent, silent on the walk and silent in the room and silent when Klaus began pacing in front of him, watching, waiting for Klaus to speak. “So. What do you want?” 

“Tell me what you’re thinking first.” 

“I’m thinking we should try it again,” Klaus told him. “That would be- be better, wouldn’t it? Than using my powers to make you physical? You’d have a body?” 

“I wouldn’t have a body,” Ben answered. “I’d be borrowing yours.” 

“Yeah but you wouldn’t be the first.” 

“Oh wow, Klaus, that makes me feel way better about all of this,” Ben snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Come on, it’s not like I’m using it for much,” Klaus reasoned, hands in the air in mock surrender. “I haven’t done anything productive with it, like, ever. This is as good a use as any I can imagine for it. Besides you’ve gone half the work of keeping it going, it’s basically both of ours.” 

“Stop saying _it_. It’s _you_.” 

“Not really.” Ben did not look impressed, but he really did not have a leg to stand on when it came to fucked up mental health. “I’m still me, you’re still you, we’re just sharing space. Wouldn’t it be nice?” 

“You’re doing it to make them happy.” 

“And you, if you’d let me.” Klaus frowned, looking his brother up and down, taking in his tense posture. “You want to, don’t you?” 

“I…” Ben looked away and shoved his hands in his pockets. “More than anything, Klaus.” 

“So let me do this for you,” Klaus said, reaching out to touch Ben’s arm. “Ground rules, though.” Ben chuckled. 

“Sure.” 

“Nothing permanent,” he started, “no haircuts, don’t shave, no tattoos.” 

“All right.” 

“Second, stay _out_ of my pants, all right?” Ben rolled his eyes. 

“You really don’t have to tell me that,” he replied. 

“Oh, oh I’m dairy free, you’re gonna wanna stick to that one.” Ben had tears in his eyes, but he was smiling, really smiling, with his whole face. 

“Klaus,” Ben choked out. “Thank you.” Klaus found he couldn’t answer his brother, there was something in his throat, so he opened his arms. It was as horrible as the first time, but he was prepared. Once the cold took over, he wasn’t quite aware. It was a nice little break from the constant responsibility of having a body. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Commission makes their move, but the Umbrella Academy outplays them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gore and violence and Ben.

_Vanya_

Midmorning a call came through to the mansion. Vanya had been trying to answer the phones, the ghosts did but they’d sometimes forget halfway through what they were doing and drift away. Worse yet their voices wouldn’t be transmitted, they couldn’t be recorded or heard over the phone, so most people who called and got a ghost eventually hung up in frustration.

This time she had to chase away Jill to get to the phone, but the young woman let her. “Hello?” she answered. 

“V-Vanya?” came Sissy’s strained voice. 

“Oh my God, Sissy, are- are you ok?” 

“There are some people here,” the farm wife whispered. “They- they have us tied up, they haven’t hurt us.” 

“What do they look like? How many are there?” 

“There’s two women here.” 

“What do they want?” Vanya could barely hear over her own pounding heart, her fingers feeling numb. 

“They want you.” 

“We’ll be there, Sissy, just hold on,” Vanya assured her, but the line went dead before she could say anything else. For a moment she stood in shock, her head too filled with anxiety to even move, when Five found her. 

“What’s going on?” he asked. 

“It’s- It’s Sissy,” Vanya gasped out. “They- the Commission is holding them hostage, at the farm-” 

“Take some deep breaths,” he urged her, moving closer to lay a hand on her shoulder. Vanya did as she was told, gulping down air until her ears stopped ringing and she was able to form words. “What did they want?” 

“They want us,” she said. “Please, Five, we- we have to go help them.” 

“We’ll help them,” he assured her. “Go get in the car, I’ll get everyone else.” Vanya nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment as she left. Klaus had been letting her use the car, he hadn’t asked her for the keys back since that night she’d tried to leave. Waiting in the front seat of the car for her siblings was awful, she wanted nothing more than to slam on the gas and tear out of there, but she couldn’t do it alone. 

Surprisingly fast her family was mobilized, probably practice from when they’d had to be ready for missions within minutes as children. Five hopped in the front seat with her, with Allison, Klaus, and Diego in the back seat and Luther in the way back. “Let’s get going,” Five told her. “We’re with you.” Vanya looked in the rearview mirror, seeing her siblings grinning at her. 

“Thank you,” she told them, as sincerely as she could because she meant it. She really, really meant it. 

* * *

When they were within sight of the farm Five had her pull off the side of the road. “Just give us a minute,” he said. “We need a plan.” 

“Jump in, jump the hostages out, we kill whatever Commission shits we find,” Diego said. “Simple.” 

“Lila’s there and we know she can at least jump,” Allison pointed out. “You jump and she just jumps after you.” 

“We split up, then. If I jump and she follows, I’ll have backup.” Vanya gripped the steering wheel, knuckles white. 

“Who goes where?” she asked. 

“Let’s wait on the intel of what the layout is,” Five told her. She didn’t know what that meant but they all sat in silence until Klaus spoke up. 

“Whole family is tied up in the house,” he said. “Lila and a blond lady are there, is that the Handler?” 

“Should be.” 

“Right. They’re all close to each other, I think the kid was difficult to handle without his mom. If you play your cards right, Five, you can jump in and jump them out without an issue, probably to the barn.” 

“Half of us go to the house, half of us wait in the barn for me to jump. The barn team will handle Lila, house team will handle the Handler.” 

“What’s going to stop Lila from jumping the Handler with her?” Diego asked. 

“We’ll need to separate them,” Luther agreed. “Are there two doors into the house? If I go in the back I could get between them.” 

“Diego can throw a couple knives, get them to dodge,” Allison offered. “Vanya and I can be in the barn, Diego, Five, and Luther to the house?” 

“Sounds reasonable.” 

“We forgot Klaus.” Five looked in the rearview mirror at their spooky brother, who waved at him with his HELLO hand. “So, Klaus, what’s up? What do you think of the plan?” Diego snorted but Five had a determined edge to his look. 

“Oh, it sounds ok,” he replied with a shrug. Five narrowed his eyes. 

“Does anyone on your side of things have any ideas?” 

“Ben says it’s good, if that’s what you’re hinting at.” 

“I think you know I wasn’t.” Klaus licked his lips and looked around at all of them. 

“You’re all gonna do great,” he said with a grin. 

“Where will you be?” Five asked again. 

“Barn,” he answered. “Let’s get going.” Vanya didn’t know what sort of understanding Five and Klaus had, but she assumed it had something to do with the ghosts he had been able to summon to advise them. Allison, Klaus, and Vanya all got out first, moving through the trees to get within sight of the barn. They stayed hidden there until Five, Diego, and Luther started making a move on the house. With attention on their brothers they were able to sneak around the back of the barn and slip inside, Allison in the lead, Vanya in the middle, Klaus bringing up the rear. 

“This is it,” Allison said softly. She looked worried. “Vanya, please, don’t use your powers unless you have to. We can handle it.” Vanya gave Klaus a dubious look and realized Allison was the most capable person there. 

“But what if-” 

“It’s going to be fine,” Klaus interjected with a wink, reaching out to grasp her wrist. “It’s all going to be ok.” He really did have an assuring, charming air to him. It had been so long since Vanya had seen him sober she forgot what it was like. Maybe he really could start a cult if he wanted to. 

They waited in silence, listening to their own breathing, ears straining for any sound from the house. There wasn’t a warning before Five jumped to the barn, just one second stillness and quiet the next a zap and Five, along with the entire Cooper family, were teleported into the barn. Allison and Klaus leapt into action, Allison going first to untie Harlan while Klaus went to help Sissy, leaving Vanya and her sluggish reflexes to help untie Carl. “How are Diego and Luther?” Allison asked as she helped Harlan to Sissy. 

“What the fuck is going on?” Carl demanded, while Sissy was busy comforting the distraught child. 

“We have everything under control,” Klaus told him smoothly, half a second before Lila jumped to the barn and kicked him right in the ribs. 

“Vanya! Get them out of here,” Allison barked, throwing herself between Lila and Klaus’ collapsed body. Everything was moving so fast, it took Vanya a moment to catch up with what was going on, but seeing her sister trading blows with Lila motivated her to mobilize the Coopers, ignoring their questions and fear to get them moving to the lower level of the barn, away from the danger. 

With everyone tucked into the hay stalls, hidden from view, Vanya decided to try and explain things to them. 

“Those people,” she started, “are here for me and my siblings. They used you to lure us out. I thought by leaving you’d be safe, but I was wrong, and I’m sorry.” 

“What do they want with you?” Sissy asked. “Are- those people are your family?” 

“My brothers and my sister,” Vanya confirmed. “You remember one of them, right?” 

“But what do those people _want_ from you?” Sissy insisted, reaching out to touch Vanya’s face. Vanya saw the same fear in her own heart reflected in the woman’s eyes, she knew she had to be strong here. 

“They want us dead,” she answered. “They’re very dangerous. And I need to help stop them.” 

“No, Vanya, it’s dangerous, you can’t go back up there.” 

“Please, I need to help my family.” Vanya put her hand over Sissy’s, where it cupped her cheek. “Stay here. Keel Harlan safe.” She couldn’t let herself get lost in Sissy’s eyes, in Sissy’s needs, she tore herself away and to her feet. On the ground level of the barn she could hear fighting taking place, shouting and scuffling. When she poked her head back up she saw Allison and Klaus taking on Lila, or really she saw Allison going toe to toe with Lila, Five as backup, following her every jump. Klaus was a little bit the punching bag, taking a hit every now and again when Lila managed to slip away from Allison and Five. Vanya slowly eased her way up the ladder and onto the floor, but even her caution was noted and Lila soon targeted her. One moment Vanya was backed up against the wall of the barn, the next Lila was in front of her and delivering a savage kick to her ribs, sending her flying. 

“Vanya!” Allison cried, but Five got there first, jumping behind Lila and leaping onto her back. Vanya staggered back, trying to catch her breath. She could see Lila, who had shaken off Five, dashing for the ladder down to the lower level. 

And then everything went white. 

* * *

It was dark and cool where she was, that was what she knew. For a long while that was all she had, the coolness and darkness, she imagined it was what space felt like, or maybe death. In either event she was calm, like floating down a river. 

Only she had memories of this place, of this calm, of the cold in her veins. She was not where she was supposed to be. 

When she opened her eyes she knew what she’d see. She was in her cell, in the cement chamber Sir Reginald had built in his basement to keep her contained. Panic was the first thing that came to her, a blinding white hot panic she thought she might catch fire with the intensity of it. It was happening all over again, she was both four and twenty nine, she was banging on the door to her prison and begging to be let out. 

“It’s not real, Vanya,” came a familiar voice. When she turned she saw him, whole and standing before her. 

“Ben,” she whispered. 

“Vanya.” Her hands began to tremble, was she dead? What was happening? 

“I’m- I’m doing it again, aren’t I?” she asked, voice wavering. “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I control myself like the rest of you guys?” She pressed her back to the door, she no longer knew where freedom was or if leaving would be the safe option, and slid down to the floor to tuck her knees up to her face and bury herself away. Ben shifted around, she heard him when he sat before her, and when she peeked an eye out she saw him, cross legged and patient. 

“It’s not too late,” he told her with a gentle smile. “You can go back, there’s still time.” Vanya let out a choked sob. 

“I don’t deserve to live,” she cried, tears beginning to pour down her face. “I killed Pogo, I almost killed Allison. I destroyed the world. I’m- I’m a monster.” The guilt and shame of all she’d done, all she’d seen, all she was capable of crushed her, she couldn’t go on speaking, there was no air left for her. Ben scooted closer to her, still patient, still calm. 

“Dad treated you like a bomb before you ever were one. He was… so scared of your power he never let you use it. Drugged you up, kept you numb for years.” Gently, so gently, Ben reached out and touched her hand where it rested on her knee. “That’s messed up Vanya. No wonder you couldn’t control it.” Vanya looked at his hand, where it held hers, then slowly up at his face. She didn’t think she deserved the kindness he was showing her, she didn’t deserve the time he was taking for her, or the soft touch of his hand. But she had it. “And maybe you have a right to be pissed off and sad and messed up,” he continued, “but it’s a shitty world full of shitty people sometimes. You aren’t a monster. You’re my sister. And right now our siblings are risking everything out there trying to save you.” They looked at each other for a moment, Ben smiling so calmly. “You can do this.” Vanya didn’t know what to say, she took a moment to try and take it all in and steady herself, but she didn’t have long. 

A piece of Ben, like a pixel, blue and glowing floated away. As they stood together, another and another piece floated off, like dust in a beam of sunlight. 

“What’s happening?” Vanya asked. Ben gave her a sad smile. “I’m hurting you, aren’t I?” 

“I’ve been fading, I think,” he told her. “Since getting to Dallas. I’m… in two places, except now…” 

“You’re going to be in one.” Ben swallowed, putting on a brave smile. 

“Will you… hold me?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper. “Last time I left, it was alone. I…” He didn’t have to explain, Vanya stepped up to him and they wrapped their arms around one another. It was awful, feeling his body disintegrate under her fingers, but she hadn’t been present for the first time, not like the others. She could do this for him. “Can you… tell Klaus something, for me?” 

“Anything.” She felt his lips press close to her ear as he began to whisper. She didn’t know if this was a permanent goodbye, but it was an end. 

* * *

Vanya came to and looked around. All things considered she felt fine, more fine than she ought to, she patted her body down just in case there was an enormous grievous wound she was missing. But no, nothing, just Vanya Hargreeves on the floor of the barn, covered in hay. 

All around her were scattered the unconscious and bruised bodies of her siblings. 

The first to come to was Luther, he was always sturdy. He sat up, groaning, blood on his face as he turned to her. For a moment, she was unsure what was going to happen. She’d lost control again, she didn’t know the extent of the damage but what had happened to them had been her fault. 

She didn’t have to worry. 

Luther threw himself at her, pulling her into a tight hug. “Vanya,” he choked out. “Vanya you’re ok.” 

“What happened?” 

“You used your powers, they got a little bit out of control,” he explained as the rest of the Umbrella Academy began to stir around them. 

“Is she ok?” Diego muttered, rolling onto his side and gripping his head. 

“She’s ok,” Luther assured him, as Allison crawled over and placed a hand on Vanya’s head, stroking her hair. Five groaned and sat up, wiping the blood from his upper lip and looking around, a little dazed. 

“Well, that was a bit of an unexpected development,” Five admitted, “but you scared Lila and the Handler off for the moment.” Klaus had regained consciousness, but he hadn’t moved, he lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling. 

“Is he all right?” Diego asked, dragging himself over to his brother. “Hey, Klaus, come on.” Klaus’ body moved fluidly when Diego shook him, rolling with the motion like a rag doll. Diego gently cradled his head, inspecting him for an injury, but Vanya knew he wouldn’t find any. 

“Klaus.” With a sigh the Seance pulled himself up into a sitting position, and turned his eyes to her. Understanding passed wordlessly between them, he knew what had happened. “He-” 

“I know,” he interrupted. “I know. He’s… yeah.” Klaus waved a hand in the air. The first time around, losing Ben had devastated him. Back then they’d thought he’d gotten over it through a continuous delusion that he was seeing their dead brother, but now she knew the truth. Klaus had never been without Ben but for a day, maybe. Klaus had never processed it, and he’d never had to recover. 

“What’s going on?” Luther asked. 

“Later,” Klaus sighed. “Right now we have to- Vanya, you- how comfortable are you, with controlling your powers?” 

“Are you serious?” Diego snapped. “She nearly-” 

“Let him speak,” Five shouted, looking a little manic as he staggered to his feet. “Klaus, I swear to god, tell me we should trust you.” Everyone looked to Klaus, who had that wide eyed, “oh me?” look he always had when he was the center of attention. 

“Oh, no, we really shouldn’t trust me,” he said with a grin. “I’d much rather trust you, Five.” 

“I can control it now, I think,” Vanya said, drawing attention back to her. “If we need it. Ben, he talked to me, he- I think I can.” 

“Well you’re going to have to, missy,” Klaus told her with a stretch and a yawn. “Let’s go see what Lila and Miss Handler are up to, hmm?” Slowly they pulled themselves up, Luther standing first, giving a hand to Allison while Diego dragged Klaus upright and Five gave Vanya a hand. Together, everyone leaning on one another, they made their way to the window of the barn. Out in the field they could see the Handler and Lila. 

“Maybe you should have killed the Board,” Diego mentioned. “She framed you for it anyway, and we could’ve taken her deal and gotten back to 2019.” 

“Wouldn’t have worked,” Klaus muttered, getting a very dubious look from Diego and Luther. 

“As I recall, genius, you were in the barn when that little tidbit was relayed,” Diego told him. There was definitely more argument to be had, the Hargreeves family could take anything and get hours of endless fighting, but at that moment, a hundred little blue zaps called their attention. Before their very eyes an entire army of Commission agents materialized, all armed and ready to fight. 

“We need a plan,” Diego growled as the Umbrella Academy threw themselves to the ground.

“Showtime, Vanny,” Klaus told her with a wink, his hands were already over his ears. Vanya stared at him, she wanted to know what was going on, why nothing made sense, but bullets began tearing through the barn and she knew it was up to her. 

“Keep the Coopers safe,” she told them, turning to face her fate. This was it, she had to control herself to save everyone she loved. Using the sound of the bullets, she entered a trance like state, letting it crash around her while she centered her own calmness. 

Taking a deep breath she leapt out of the window, floating above the farm. It all looked so small. One energy wave would end it all. 

* * *

_Klaus_

“I can take it from here,” Klaus told them, once Vanya had leapt out the window. “You don’t need to worry about a thing.” Diego looked at him like he always had, they all did. They all looked at him like he was a failure and a moron but he was going to save their lives. 

“Let him,” Five said. The way Five and he looked at one another, Klaus knew he’d failed to keep the most important secret of his life. Just another failure to add to the list. 

“I’m not letting you go out there alone,” Diego told him. 

“Not to be mean but you can’t stop me,” Klaus retorted, sitting up now the gunfire had ceased. 

“We’re supposed to stick together,” Luther said. 

“Five, come on, you know what has to happen,” Klaus sighed. “I’ll be fine, all right? I’ve always got backup.” The second shockwave shook the barn, knocking Vanya from the air. She flew through the window and landed with a thud on the floor of the barn. The whole building shook but held, though just barely. 

In the confusion, Five jumped Klaus out to the field, leaving behind Luther, Allison, Vanya, and Diego. 

“You got this?” Five asked. “That was my last jump.” 

“Psh, Fivesy, I’m absolutely fine,” Klaus laughed. 

“What’s your plan?” Klaus looked out to where the Handler and Lila still stood in a field of dead bodies. Lila was floating but still near her mother, proud of herself for having returned Vanya’s attack.

“Some things,” he said, “can’t be controlled.” 

“Good luck, Klaus.” Klaus lifted his arm to wave at the two women. 

“Yoo hoo!” he called, slowly approaching them. “Let’s have a little chat, shall we? I’ve got an offer for you!” He didn’t stop walking even when they showed signs of hesitance, but Lila had the sense to return to the ground beside the Handler. It was a long moment before he arrived to stand alone before the two scariest people in the universe, save probably the lovely folks he was related to. 

“What do you want?” the Handler asked suspiciously. Almost without realizing his fingers moved to touch Dave’s dog tags, where they sat over his ribs. 

“Why shouldn’t I kill you right now?” Lila shot, she was amped up on adrenaline, all action no throught. Klaus licked his lips, looking around at the carnage. 

“You know you can’t win this,” he stated. “Unless you kill me first this whole thing doesn’t end well for you.” All around him he could feel the lost souls of the fallen agents, agitated. For a moment they struggled, but he gently pushed them back down, keeping them on the other side. 

“I don’t follow,” Lila said suspiciously. “What’s he talking about, Mom?” 

“Every sibling of mine you kill,” Klaus continued, “I just resurrect them. Then they become double hard to kill, you know, when they’re a ghost.” And there it was, the tugging he expected. Lila could sense he was using his powers to keep the ghosts at bay, she was ever so slightly testing his limits. She was giving a little pull, waiting to reverse it on him. 

“Well, thank you for pointing out a wonderful new strategy for us,” the Handler said with a grin. “Lila, focus on this one.” Lila narrowed her eyes, she could feel him pushing back. Around them the ghosts began to move, pacing, impatient. They knew they were being fought over. 

“I… can’t,” she muttered. 

“I’m sorry?” the Handler asked with obvious shock, raising her eyebrows at her daughter. God she sounded like Reginald like that. “You can’t?” 

“I need to mimic his powers right now,” Lila ground out, the effort of what she was doing showing in the strain in her voice. That was a difference, then. She could mimic their powers back at them, one at a time, and with an incredible amount of energy. 

“What do you mean? Mimic anyone’s you want and take him out!” the Handler snapped. Klaus was fighting back harder, it was like trying to keep a beach ball underwater, but he had to keep it up and keep the ghosts on the other side. 

“Don’t do it, Lila,” Klaus told her, grinning. Their otherworldly battle was getting a bit more intense, he was sure the Handler could see the blue around his hands as he continued to suppress the army of agents, all of them clawing at the veil. 

“I don’t think you’re in any position to give orders here,” Lila gloated, grinning. Stupid woman. “With your powers I have our agents back. And I have them under my control, an unkillable army. How will the Umbrella Academy handle that, huh?” 

“Not if I conjure them first,” Klaus laughed, feeling Lila finally fully reverse his power. It had to be that way, she could only return what they gave her. Any ghost he conjured she would just banish, but if he suppressed the ghosts, she could only reverse it by conjuring them. 

Open smugness at winning their tug of war, Lila cried out in triumph as she materialized her army. “Oops, you won.” It was a gamble, to be sure, but these people had just been needlessly slaughtered, and the Commission had been the ones to order them to their deaths. These ghosts were conjured all right, but conjuring was not controlling. 

There was no controlling ghosts. 

The Handler seemed to realize what was happening first, but that didn’t mean shit when she was surrounded. Lila was the one closest to the briefcase, maybe she’d get it maybe she wouldn’t. The ghosts were on them in seconds, and it wasn’t a slow or pretty death. It was gorey, the Handler screamed and screamed while her body was torn apart with undead fingers and teeth. 

A flash of blue meant Lila had left, at least. Diego would be a little happy about that. 

It wasn’t as if Klaus enjoyed seeing the carnage ghosts could wreak, he didn’t like seeing bodies pulled apart by people’s bare hands. But it was happening because of him, or at least because of his actions, so the least he could do was take it in. 

He didn’t know how long he stared at the carcass being mangled. He knew it ended with Diego’s hand on his shoulder. “Klaus,” he told him firmly. “Klaus it’s done. You need to make it stop.” 

“Oh, oh. Right.” With a wave of his hand the army dissipated. They had one more among them, a very snappy dresser, if he said so himself. Diego was being very nice and holding him up, he could probably stand on his own, he did so most days, but at that moment it was a chore that was beyond him. 

* * *

_Five_

Five wanted nothing more than for things to be over. Klaus was looking a little strained, and to be fair he’d been through a little too much in the past couple hours. At least he was conscious, leaning against Diego as they sat on the ground together. Allison was holding Vanya, Luther was holding Allison, and Five was pacing around their little huddle, stepping over corpse after corpse. His family might need a breather but he had to prepare, had to calculate. If he was correct in all of his assumptions thus far, this was their last chance. But so far no end of the world, so it might actually be they had succeeded in preventing the Apocalypse. 

There were questions only Klaus could answer, but that would have to wait. Right in the middle of the pile of bodies teleported two figures. Only one was familiar, the shorter of the two. The other, the fish tank in man’s clothing, that was unfamiliar. Five knew of him, however, and that was enough. “Carmichael,” Five greeted as the figures came to stand before them. 

“Number Five,” the fish replied. 

“Look, Klaus, a fish driving a robot,” Diego told their brother. “Come on man, that’s funny, isn’t it?” Klaus was still numb to the world, unfortunately, his head unmoving as it lay on Diego’s shoulder. AJ cleared his throat. 

“You’ve done a lot of damage, Number Five,” he stated. “But you’ve got what you wanted.” 

“And what is that?” 

“A negotiation.” The smaller man waved at all of them. Standing up he was just about the same height as Klaus and Diego sitting down. 

“I thought the Board was eliminated,” Five said suspiciously. 

“They were. I was spared by the Handler, to gloat over.” 

“A mistake.” 

“Indeed.” 

“I’m bringing my family to negotiate,” Five said. 

“I would have it no other way.” Carmichael lifted a robot hand and snapped his fingers, and abruptly they were transported to a board room, boring and plain, windows showing light but nothing more on the outside. “Have a seat.” Diego helped Klaus up and to sit in a chair, staying by him. Luther, Allison, and Vanya all sat down as well, but Five remained standing. These sort of things never went well, there was always a catch. The Commission gave up nothing. “So,” Carmichael began, lighting up a cigarette. To the surprise of no one the smell of smoke got Klaus’ attention and he actually sat up and looked around, taking in his surroundings. “You’ve disrupted the Timeline. It’s going to take a lot to repair.” 

“I’d imagine so.” 

“What you don’t understand, Number Five, is that I answer to a far higher power than you can ever imagine.” 

“I don’t care.” 

“The Apocalypse will happen,” Carmichael continued. “There is no stopping it.” 

“We’ve foiled it once, we can do it again.” 

“I understand that,” Carmichael stated calmly. “Which is why I’m here to offer you a deal.” 

“We’re listening.” 

“The damage you’ve done will need to be repaired. We might need to make certain… changes to it, in order to get it back up and running.” 

“All right…” 

“There will be an Apocalypse. I cannot say when, only that it will be after your lifetimes. In exchange for your cooperation in not disrupting our work, or attempting to change the Timeline, I will allow you to put in a few... requests for repairs you’d like to see made.” 

“Bribery?” Five demanded. “Is that what you’ve resorted to?” 

“Negotiation.” Carmichael turned his attention to the Umbrella Academy. “If you could each change one thing that happened since Five returned, what would it be?” That wasn’t fair, his siblings were all deeply damaged, given the chance to undo things in their lives, even give up their memories most of them would leap at the opportunity. All of them looked at one another. 

“It’s our job to stand against evil,” Five said. “To stop the end of the world.” 

“The world will always end,” Carmichael told him plainly. “There is no stopping it, no preventing it. And I doubt even your father would hold you responsible for not saving the world after your time had ended.” Five was still standing but a little shocked at how easily Reginald Hargreeves’ voice had come out of his own mouth. He had never wanted to save the world, he had wanted to save his family. Looking around he could see how drained they all were. “So, I’ll ask again, Umbrella Academy. What occurrences since Five’s return to your timeline would you like to change?”

“Like… like Pogo?” Luther asked tentatively. Carmichael nodded. 

“Yes, like Pogo.” Luther turned to Five, who still hadn’t sat down. 

“Five, I say we take it,” he said. “It’s not like we have a lot of options.” 

“The world still ends,” Five argued. 

“Yeah, but not when we’re in it,” Allison reasoned. 

“The end of the world is something we all know about, though,” Luther continued. “I mean, the sun is going to explode eventually, right?” 

“And my family, they’ll be safe? The world won’t end with them in it?” 

“It won’t end with them in it,” Carmichael agreed. 

“Can we have some time to discuss it?” he asked. 

“You may have one hour.” With a snap of his robot fingers they were suddenly back on the farm, all of his seated siblings suddenly falling to the floor of the living room of the farm house. There was much grumbling about that, but eventually they were all seated in a circle on the floor, eyeing one another. 

“I suppose,” Five started, “if we took a vote now I’m pretty sure I’d be out voted.” 

“Come on, Five, we get to undo all the shit you did and we don’t have to stop the apocalypse. It’s a win-win!” Luther argued. 

“They just postpone the apocalypse. It could happen the second the last of us die. What about Claire, Allison? Her children? You’re all right with them dying in an apocalypse?” 

“What choice do we have?” Allison asked. “We’re at the end of our rope here.” 

“There’s always a choice.” She didn’t look convinced. “Look, there’s a pile of briefcases all over this farm, we could steal some, get back to 2019 without-” 

“That won’t work,” Diego said. “You know it won’t. Let’s just try to negotiate for the apocalypse to be like a thousand years from now and take the deal.” 

“We’re not responsible for all time, just for our time,” Luther said. “This _is_ saving the world. The next apocalypse can be someone else’s job to figure out.” Five looked at his siblings, at their exhaustion, their pain, their blood covered faces. He wanted to know what the ghosts had to say, but Klaus was slipping back into his unresponsive state. Besides, he’d relied too much on Klaus already, his brother was definitely paying the price. 

“Think about it, if no one we know is alive still, then… then is it really our world that’s dying?” Allison asked. “If this was the original timeline and the apocalypse happened years and years after our deaths, then how would we even know about it?” 

“What you don’t like, Five, is that you know,” Diego said. “But you can’t save the world forever, you can’t save the world after you die. There’s a limit to what we can realistically do.” 

“Really, Diego? I thought you’d be on my side here.” 

“Hey man, I’m only human. I don’t want to waste what little time I have on this earth combatting apocalypse after apocalypse.” 

“Five?” Klaus finally spoke up, looking curious. “Do you know what you’ll do, who you’ll be, without the apocalypse?” Klaus had tried that back in 2019, though much harsher. He hadn’t wanted to listen. What would he do? He’d never let himself fantasize. It was too painful to think of being safe and happy with his family, not while he was stranded in the apocalypse, not when he was fighting to get back to them. 

“I don’t know,” he admitted. 

“We can help you figure it out,” Klaus offered, giving a tiny smile. “You can go back to 2019 and help me detox. That’ll be fun.” 

“And meet Claire,” Allison added. Five hated to admit it but they might be right. He might not be thinking clearly, because of how much he needed the apocalypse to define himself. If everyone agreed… 

“Let’s let Charmichael know we’re ready.” It wasn’t actually required, they’d been listened to and within a moment they heard outside the telltale sound of a briefcase teleport, and Carmichael was knocking on the door to the house. 

“You’ve come to a decision?” he asked. 

“We have.” A snap of Carmichael’s fingers and they were back in the boardroom. Again Five’s siblings sat down around the table, getting situated while Five stared down Carmichael. “Well then,” he said, trying to keep his exhaustion from showing. “Children, tell Santa what you want for Christmas.” 

“Pogo,” Luther said, almost instantly. Carmichael nodded, while the short man made a note of it on a notepad. 

“Pogo will be alive and well.” 

“Detective Patch,’ Diego said, which gave Carmichael pause. 

“We can arrange things, you know,” he said curiously. “Would you like to have your relationship with Detective Patch restored, as well as her life spared?” Diego frowned, shaking his head. 

“No, how could that even-” 

“We are able to restore the Timeline using fractured pieces of all possible timelines,” Carmichael explained. “There was the possibility that you would rekindle your romance with her at some point during the days that Number Five disrupted the Timeline.”

“Absolutely not,” Diego told Carmichael emphatically. “If that happens that’s something I’ll handle. Just make sure she’s alive.” 

“And uninjured,” Five put in. “I want it in writing, actually. Alive and uninjured, you don’t get out of this deal that easily.” 

“A contract will be drafted, to be perused at your leisure.” 

“Ben?” Klaus asked. 

“Ben does not get a vote,” Carmichael told him, but Klaus shook his head. 

“No, can- can we bring back Ben? Like can he be… alive?” 

“Ben’s death is not within the Timeline we have to repair.” 

“Oh.” Klaus looked like he was going to go back to his torpor, so Diego jostled him. 

“Hey, come on, isn’t there anything else you want?” The nudge Diego gave his brother clinked his dog tags, and suddenly Klaus had energy again. 

“Dave,” he gasped. “Dave, can- alive? Please?” 

“David Katz can live through the war, yes.” Klaus’ eyes narrowed, leaning in. 

“Not good enough,” he said angrily. “I want him to live a long life, and die of old age. Capiche?” Carmichael sighed, shaking his head. 

“We’ll make it happen,” he agreed, though it sounded like it maybe tripled his paperwork. 

“When we go back to 2019, what will the circumstances be?” Five asked. 

“You will return to the bodies you were in, at the time of the original Apocalypse. I am sure we can find a sweet spot that works for all of you, before Number Three had her vocal cords severed.” 

“If that’s the case,” Allison interjected, “can I- I want to get a little window, take a little time trip, I guess. To the 19th. March 19th, 2019.” 

“Only for a short time,” Carmichael said. “Existing in close proximity to yourself, no matter how apart physically, can cause serious problems.” 

“A short time, then. Then I’ll be ready to go back.” 

“Can I get an age appropriate body?” Five asked. “The one I’d have if I’d stayed. Same age as everyone else.” 

“Certainly within our power.” Carmichael turned his attention to their quiet sister. “Miss Vanya?” 

“Will the Coopers be all right?” 

“Your time beyond 2019 will be erased. They will not know or remember you.” Vanya looked around at all of them, looking small and lost.

“Helen Cho,” she murmured. “Helen Cho didn’t deserve to die. Can you save her?” 

“We can.” 

“Wait, so we’ll be in the bodies we had in 2019?” Klaus asked. “Goddamnit I was in withdrawal.” 

“If these demands are met, are you willing to work with us?” Five wished he had more time to think this over, but he’d had years by himself to hone his mental acuity. This was what he’d been training for, he’d done his waiting, he’d had his time. 

“Deal.” 

* * *

_Allison_

It was lives and worlds away, where Allison stood: The Umbrella Academy, March 19th, 2019. She had her body back, she had her hair the way she preferred, there was no scar on her throat, and while it was difficult to really tell, this was the body that had not been to the 1960s. While a couple of years probably wouldn’t make a difference at this stage in her life, it was the lack of evidence of wearing a wedding band. This was 2019, not 1963, she hadn’t worn a wedding ring in over six months. When she knocked on the door Pogo answered. “Miss Allison?” he asked in disbelief. Allison couldn’t help the way her entire face split into a grin. 

“Pogo, it’s been too long,” she laughed, stepping in and bending down to wrap her arms around him. She didn’t let go for a long time. 

“And to what do we owe this unexpected visit?” the chimp asked as they made their way through the foyer and toward the stairs. 

“I need to talk to Dad,” she answered. “Is he in his office?” 

“Yes, but he is very busy, Miss Allison,” Pogo warned as she started up the stairs. Allison laughed. 

“He’s always busy,” she retorted. For all her gusto, when she was at last standing outside the office doors, she hesitated. She took a moment to close her eyes and take a deep breath and remind her what she was here for. She reminded herself of Klaus, his years of homelessness and addiction, his panic attacks even in his mid thirties at even the slightest reminder of what Reginald had done to him. She reminded herself of Diego, his anger, his pain, how he was desperate to save people because of the guilt over his brother’s death that had been instilled in his heart by Reginald. She reminded herself of Luther, who was mutilated and stunted and unable to function outside of serving some older man, a pattern created by Reginald. She reminded herself of Vanya, neglected, cast aside Vanya who had enough trauma to end the world twice over, bestowed upon her by Reginald. 

She reminded herself of Ben’s slack, pale, blood covered face. 

She knocked on the door. 

“Enter!” came the cold bark, and she pushed the door open. Sir Reginald Hargreeves sat at his desk, much like he had most of her childhood. 

“Dad,” she greeted, closing the door behind herself. Reginald looked up, regarding her through his monocle. 

“Number Three,” he returned. “I’m quite busy here.” 

“I know.” 

“So what is it? Spit it out.” Allison shook her head, stepping forward into the room to take a seat opposite him. 

“I know what you’re planning,” she said slowly. 

“What?” 

“You’ve got Grace and Pogo in on it too. You plan on killing yourself, to get us all back here. To bring back the Umbrella Academy.” 

“And how do you know that?” 

“It’s been a wild ride.” Allison shrugged. “What does it matter? Call it a guess. I just came here to tell you… that you don’t have to.” Reginald glowered at her and finally set aside his pen, pushing his papers to the side of his desk so he could steeple his fingers. 

“I’ve gone over the possibilities, Number Three. The world requires the Umbrella Academy to protect it, and with all of you so selfishly scattered, my death is the only thing that could bring you back together. The calculations have been made, your input is not warranted.” Allison shook her head. 

“Did you ever think about apologizing?” she asked. Reginald scoffed. 

“You children like to blame everything on me,” he replied. “Apologize for what? For attempting, against insurmountable odds, to train and teach and prepare you for life? Was the world too harsh, then? Did I go too easy on you?” Allison took a moment to just breathe as she stared him down. She was no longer a child. This man no longer had the power over her he once had. 

“You mistreated us,” she began. “You know it. We all know it. All the things you consider to be everyone’s failings are just the symptoms of the poison you were in our lives. If you really wanted us to be better people, if you actually had our best interest at heart, you’d humble yourself and admit to the role you played in our problems.” Reginald was slippery, and accountability was not something he’d ever find himself pinned under.

“None of the would answer, were I to call,” he told her dismissively. 

“If you called to apologize?” Allison shrugged. “You don’t need us together. Us being a team is about your ego. You need us functional, you need us using our powers. If you called them and apologized, if you admitted you were wrong and you had hurt them, that would have an impact. The way things stand no one is sticking around after your funeral. We’re not being a team after this, we’ll all just drift away.” There was a dangerous glint in Reginald’s eye as he regarded her. 

“You say them,” he began. “Do you not also believe you are owed an apology? Did I spare you any damage?” 

“You probably do owe me an apology,” she admitted. “But I don’t need it. I’m not here for me. I’m here for them.” 

“So you’ve found a way to mature, then, without dragging me into it? And you believe your siblings are incapable?” 

“They’re not incapable,” Allison told him, trying not to lose her composure. “They’re deeply, deeply traumatized. I am too, if I really want to be honest about it. But I didn’t self-destruct. I took out my trauma on some people who didn’t deserve it, people I was supposed to love.” 

“Ah yes, the child and your ex-husband, I’m assuming?” Allison nodded. 

“I have my own amends to make,” she said. Before he could find a way to use Patrick and Claire against her she reached into her bag and pulled out a sheet of paper, sliding it across the desk to him. “Here’s everyone’s contact information. Klaus gets out of rehab in the next few days so you’ll have to be quick before you lose him. Diego and Vanya’s numbers are there too. You already know how to get in contact with Luther.” 

“Thank you so _very_ much for your opinion, but it won’t be necessary.” Reginald flicked his wrist and sent the paper sailing off the desk. 

“You’re a coward,” Allison accused. “A real coward, you know that? You’re taking the easy way out.” Allison stood, hands on his desk, leaning over him. “Life isn’t supposed to be easy. You’re choosing to avoid responsibility. If you were half as brave as you wanted us to be you’d be picking up that phone and at least trying to apologize before just up and offing yourself.” 

“Number Three, that is quite enough!” Reginald barked, leaping to his feet. 

“You know what? I think you raised seven brave children, who turned into seven brave adults,” she said, already backing away. “I also think you gave them demons to run from and some deep seated issues they need to spend all their energy working on, rather than working to save the world. If you had been a better father then they would have been able to look outward. What you hate us for? That’s the fruit of the seed you planted.” While Reginald observed her, looking for a chink in her armor like he always did, she slung her purse over her shoulder. “Your plan is ruined anyway. I’ll tell them you killed yourself.” 

“You’ll only add to the mystery,” he reasoned, “you’ll have three competing theories now.” Allison looked at him, really looked at him. This was not the man from her childhood. This man was sad, he was lonely, he was a little loopy. This man had taken the stubborn tenacity of his entrepreneurial youth and held it so tightly he’d lost some of the other faculties that had tempered it. This wasn’t a plan, it was a suicide. A genuine suicide of a man who had been left to stew in his own conspiratorial intelligence. In a few days he was going to be a sad old man who kicked it in a big, empty house.

Sir Reginald Hargreeves genuinely killed himself. The plan was cracked at best, a cover for a very real suicidal desire at worst. 

“Call them,” she said softly. “Prove me wrong, one last time. Say you told me so one last time before ending it all.” 

“Your argument has been noted,” Reginald told her curtly. “I believe you know where the door is.” 

* * *

It took time to make arrangements, they had a few hours at the farm to kill. Allison had a letter to write to a very confused husband, Vanya had amends to make with the Coopers. What Luther and Diego were up to Five didn’t care. He cared what was going on in the bedroom where Klaus had locked himself. Five paced outside the door, before making up his mind and pressing his ear to listen in. “At least tell me where your body is,” he heard his brother pleading softly. “What do you mean it doesn’t matter?” The curiosity got the better of him and he jumped to the other side of the door. 

Klaus was sitting in a meditation pose, cradling the dog tags to his lips. He raised his eyebrows at his brother. 

“Can I help you?” he asked. 

“Am I correct in assuming we’ve been operating under the last contingency?” Klaus looked at him curiously for a while, but his head was cocked to the side, which meant that while he had his brother’s eyes, ghosts had his ears. 

“That phrase doesn’t mean nothing to me.” Five nodded. 

“Can I see him?” 

“Absolutely not.” 

“That was good cover, saying it was Hazel.” 

“What tipped you off?” 

“You knew too much. Hazel wasn’t privy to their plans, he had far less information than you seemed to know.” Klaus nodded. 

“It was a risk,” he admitted. 

“Ben saw him?” 

“Mm-hmm. We talked to him together, but I mean, Ben wasn’t really… all there, all the time.” 

“Is he coming with us?” 

“He says he’s staying. He seems to think-” 

“Having two of us is a strain on your psyche,” Five finished. “Has it so far?” The answer was plain as day, written in every inch of Klaus’ face and body language. “I suppose I ought to say thank you. We’d all be dead without you,” 

“You too, but not you. It’s… yeah. Complicated.” Five joined his brother, sitting beside him, close enough that his shoulder touched Klaus’ arm. 

“We did it, though,” Five said. “We saved the world.” Klaus nodded. 

“Yeah, we… yeah.” 

“I’m sorry about Ben.” 

“You saved us by jumping us, you couldn’t have known.” 

“I’ve always known the risks of time travel. I learned them well. It was a risk I never should have asked you all to take.” 

“You know, by the end, all he was doing was reading?” Klaus shook his head, a tear running down his cheek. “Remember how it was growing up? That was his escape. His safe place. I think he knew, somewhere, deep down, that things weren’t right. He was trying to feel safe again.” 

“It left you, though. You were here the longest of any of us.” 

“He said, back in 2019, that spending years with me was torture. And then we got here and I was sober, things were gonna be better and he didn’t… he started fading. It’s not fair, what I put him through, and it’s not fair I didn’t get a chance to make it up to him.” And yeah, Five realized he shouldn’t be there. Allison or Diego should be the ones to comfort him, Five had nothing to offer. Maybe he should go get them. 

Before he could there was a knock on the door, and Vanya pushed the door open. 

“How are you doing?” she asked gently, getting down on the floor in front of Klaus and laying her hand on his bare foot. Klaus tried to say he was fine, they saw his lips form the words, but the tears were too thick and he had to bury his face in his hands. “Ben said something, Klaus. He gave me a message for you.” 

“Please, if it’s mean or mad at me I- I don’t want to hear it.” 

“It’s not,” Vanya assured him, and got a sad little nod from him to continue. “He said he wanted to stay. He chose to stay.” 

“No, no no no,” Klaus moaned, “no, he’s confused. I forced him to be there, to spend time with me.” 

“You didn’t, though, you didn’t force him. He wanted to be with you.” Klaus sniffed and looked down at his hands miserably. “I know you don’t believe me,” Vanya continued gently. “I know it’s hard to really believe that. But give it time, just hold onto it for now.” Klaus nodded. 

“I can do that.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “Anyway Five you should probably go.” 

“Oh?” 

“Someone has to talk Luther and Diego out of killing Dad before we have to go, and honestly I kinda wanna see them try so. It should probably be you.” 

* * *

_Five, some days earlier._

For the third time in his life Five was in 1963, Dallas. The second time was just arriving, Second Five had no idea what was about to come. “The final contingency,” Five muttered to himself, watching as the Swedes shot and killed Hazel, then looked for his past self. He knew they’d soon stop looking for him, as he’d jump to the roof, and that would be dangerous and disruptive to the timeline if they saw him he ducked out of the way. Second Five was going to find Elliott soon, so Five stayed hidden, waiting for the street to clear before he jumped to Hazel’s body. No one Commission trained traveled without a weapon, and he was able to find a pistol in Hazel’s pocket. 

Existing in close proximity to yourself in time was dangerous, the longer he stayed the more likely it would be Second Five would become aware of his presence. The symptoms would appear and they’d be unmistakable, and both of them would lose focus. 

Thankfully they wouldn’t be existing together long. 

He wished he knew more about Klaus’ powers. All he knew was that Klaus could see Ben, could conjure him physically with a great effort, and apparently Reginald had believed him to have had greater potential than they ever knew. Five also wished he knew more about dying and the afterlife, he didn’t like dealing with unknown variables. Still, though, this was the last ditch effort. This was where he had hoped he would never have to be, Dallas a third time, Dallas for the last time. 

Someone finding the body would be bad, he had to keep it hidden. He was never good at that, the Commission had body removal services. Still, though, the fate of the world and all. There wasn’t time to learn new skills, he had to adapt. 

He’d run the calculations, he’d made charts, he’d thought it over, he’d tried to change fate itself. It was a shame when it came down to it, one death would prevent everything. A single death, and not even an innocent person, as Luther had been so opposed to back in 2019. A shame, though, it had to be him. 

It was simple to jump himself into the sewers. 

It was simple enough to put the gun to his head and pull the trigger. 

What happened after that?

From there, things only got more difficult. From there it was find Klaus and Ben, see if seeing his ghost while another version of him was there and living drove his poor delicate brother insane, and then, well. Then it was save the world. 


	6. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The missing piece to a proper fix-it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What sort of an author would I be if I didn't give y'all some Klave? It's a little cheesy and a little bit shoehorned, but here we go :) Also after seeing season 2 I've realized Dave might be a himbo so. Enjoy!

_ Five _

They had a day to rest before going to Vanya’s concert. With Helen Cho restored to the Timeline Vanya was back to her old position, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t go on and support her. Despite the fact they were all free to go and spend their time in 2019 how they wanted, no one had left the Academy, everyone had returned to their childhood rooms and ate meals together and spent time together. 

Things would change after the concert, Allison and Luther were going to California to see Claire. Vanya and Diego had lives to rebuild, Vanya with her career, Diego with detective Patch and his work. 

What would happen to the two Academy members who had been lost in time, it was unclear. Five was unsure what Klaus’ future held, he was lethargic but holding together, dealing with the detox he’d been dealt when they returned to their rightful time. For himself, Five was enjoying a proper body. While his mind was still the same, he remembered the years he’d spent lost in time, it was nice to feel as if there was some part of him that hadn’t gone through that. 

Five was up and reading in the great room when there was a knock at the door. Curious, because they really should not have anyone bothering them at this time, Five set his book aside and approached the door cautiously, checking first through the peephole that it wasn’t Commission related. A man was standing there, looking a little lost with a duffel back over one shoulder, a sealed letter in the other. While he didn’t look very dangerous, in his khaki slacks and blue button down shirt, Five was not one to trust on instinct so he opened the door just an inch. 

“Can I help you?” he asked. The man smiled pleasantly at him. 

“Is this the Umbrella Academy?” the man asked. 

“If it is?” 

“If it is, then you might be who I’m looking for,” the man replied. “I’ve got a letter here from AJ Carmichael, addressed to someone named Number Five.” 

“So what are you, some sort of glorified mailman?” The man chuckled. 

“Yeah, I mean at this point I guess I kind of am,” he agreed. Disgusting. Five stood aside and allowed him in, he looked around with curiosity. He had to be reminded to hand over the letter, so engrossed with taking it all in he was. Five led the man to the great room and sat down on the couch opposite him, keeping him in his periphery as he opened the letter. 

_ Dear Number Five,  _

_ I made a promise to Number Four, and keeping it proved a little more difficult than I initially assumed. To give you a brief overview this man was destined to die in a hundred different ways. Surviving the war, he had to contend not only with the AIDS epidemic, but there were countless other possibilities. There was a timeline where he pushed someone out of the way of a car, one where he got shot trying to de-escalate police violence, there were burning buildings he ran into for some reason. In short, the universe desperately wants this man dead. The cleanest and most financially sound solution we could manage was to send him to you, so you and the Academy can make sure he doesn’t die donating both kidneys at the same time or something equally inane.  _

_ It’s in your hands now.  _

_ Best, _

_ AJ Carmichael _

Five looked up at the guest, who smiled back pleasantly, if a touch nervously. “Your name wouldn’t happen to be David J. Katz?” 

“David Joseph Katz, if that helps.” Ok so he might be a moron. 

“I know why you’re here,” Five stated, setting the letter aside. “Why don’t you tell me, though.” 

“Oh, well. I was in Vietnam a few days ago, fighting in the war you know. Then a fish-man kidnapped me.” Dave paused. “So when I say a fish-man, that’s probably inaccurate. Picture a fish bowl, but it’s on top of a robot body, but it’s in place of the head of the robot. So it was like a man whose head was a fish tank with a fish, but the fish was controlling the robot.” 

“I’ve met Carmichael.” 

“Oh, ok, so you get it.” Dave seemed relieved. “So he kidnapped me, or more like time-napped me? They took me to this strange place and told me my future. And then they showed me my future, and they asked me to make a choice.” 

“What was the choice?” 

“They said I could live out my life in my time, or I could come here.” 

“And you chose here,” Five concluded. “Was that because you feared you would die, or live a worse life, if you stayed?” Dave shook his head in disbelief. 

“Number Five,” he said, “it’s because  _ he’s _ here.” 

“You’ll never see your family again.” 

“I made my choice,” Dave told him seriously. “I’m choosing him. I’m choosing here. I made choices for my family, that nearly got me killed. I’m making the choice to be happy now.” Five nodded, that mattered. It mattered that he wanted him, not the benefits that came with being in 2019. “Do you think he still wants to see me?” Dave asked. “I know it… it meant the world to me, the time we had together. But if maybe… it was just a port in a storm, or- or something like that…” Five didn’t get to answer. Diego came in the room then. 

“Hey Five, have you seen- who’s that?” Diego stood with his arms crossed over his chest, very suspicious. The whole family was a little on edge. 

“Diego, this is Dave Katz,” Five introduced. Diego’s eyes went wide. 

“And what? You were just gonna keep him here making small talk?” he demanded, marching over to the stranger. “Diego, nice to meet you, man.” They shook hands and Diego pulled the man to his feet. 

“Nice to meet you,” Dave returned. 

“Your princess is upstairs, detoxing. It’s gross,” Diego explained, clapping the man on the shoulder and steering him out of the room. “Come on.” Diego left with Dave, and a few minutes later returned by himself, having safely deposited Dave in his lover’s arms. “What were you gonna do, interrogate the man all night?” 

“I had to make sure.” 

“Make sure what?” 

“I just… wanted to make sure he was choosing to be here, he hadn’t been… manipulated, in any way.” Klaus was in a fragile state, and part of that had been because of what he’d been asked to do in order to save them. He didn’t deserve added strain. 

Diego got it, he didn’t make Five try and say more. 

* * *

_ Vanya  _

It was a strange mix of unbridled joy and withering embarrassment she felt when her family greeted her after her concert. They all had gotten her a bouquet, she couldn’t carry them all and backstage had been mortified to realize she’d received more flowers than the soloist. “Guys it wasn’t even my solo,” she tried to explain when she met them out on the sidewalk, tugging the collar of her jacket closer against the chill of the night. 

“We’ll get you even more flowers when it is,” Luther told her, dead serious. 

She had no doubt they would. 


End file.
